FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, August 07, 2006
Contact: Shenna Bellows, (207)774-5444

Augusta: The Maine Civil Liberties announced its disappointment that the Maine Public Utilities Commission has chosen not to open an investigation into Verizon Maine’s cooperation with the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance and data collection program.  In brief deliberations today, the PUC announced that it will neither open an investigation as originally requested in a 22-person customer complaint, nor drop the case completely, as requested by Verizon.

The complaint, filed in May and since signed onto by the Maine Civil Liberties Union, the Maine Public Advocate, and almost 400 Mainers, urged the PUC to protect the privacy of Mainers by investigating whether Verizon allowed the NSA access to the phone records of its customers without their knowledge or legal consent.  Today the PUC opted for the middle ground; rather than open an investigation, it has asked Verizon to confirm under oath that statements made in earlier press releases are true and not misleading.  The statements in question state that Verizon did not give customer records to the NSA; they do not, however, state conclusively that the NSA did not have access to phone lines in Maine.

“The statements awaiting confirmation fall short of proving that Mainers have been kept safe from the invasive and illegal warrantless surveillance program” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union.  “Whether Verizon agrees to sign the statements under oath or not, we hope this is only the first step in a larger investigation into whether the NSA has been given access to Mainers’ private communications records.”

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