AT&T Claims Immunity In Lawsuit, AT&T CEO Dances Around Questions In Hearing

Some more news about the lawsuit against AT&T - AT&T is claiming immunity now:

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23 (Reuters) - Privacy rights advocates pressed a U.S. judge on Friday to allow their lawsuit against AT&T to go forward, charging the telecommunications giant is breaking the law by helping a U.S. government eavesdropping program.

Lawyers for AT&T (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which will neither confirm nor deny it is letting the U.S. government monitor its telephone and e-mail traffic as part of a counterterrorism effort, shot back in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that the Electronic Frontier Foundation's charges were based on hearsay and that the group lacked standing to bring its lawsuit.

Because tons of news reports from all of the major U.S. newspapers and statements made by whistleblowers Russell Tice, Mark Klein and other anonymous folk are all just "hearsay". Oh right.

On June 22nd, an AT&T CEO went around and stonewalled senators in a hearing about the NSA program:

Several of the handful of senators who attended the hearing, including Specter and ranking committee Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont spent much of their time grilling Whitacre about what information, if any, AT&T had turned over to authorities.

"We follow the law, senator," Whitacre responded, repeating the same answer several times.

"That is not an answer, Mr. Whitacre. You know that," Specter said. "That's not an answer. It's an evasion."

At one point, Specter grew so frustrated with Whitacre that he accused the executive of being "contemptuous of this committee."

Not that I really trust Arlen Specter, all things considered, but I honestly wonder how AT&T can just get away with dancing around any questions given to them about this by anyone, especially Congress.