ACLU airs `Don't Spy On Me' campaign.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

PORTLAND - An Oregon civil-liberties group Wednesday called on state utility regulators and the attorney general to investigate phone companies for failing to protect customers' privacy by giving the government's top spy agency access to records.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon joined with sister groups in 19 other states in filing such complaints in what the ACLU billed as its "Don't Spy On Me" campaign. The national ACLU filed a similar complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.

In Oregon, the ACLU sent letters to Attorney General Hardy Myers and the Public Utility Commission, calling on both to investigate Oregon's telephone service providers to determine if they violated customers' privacy rights by turning their records over to the National Security Agency. The providers included Verizon Northwest, Sprint/United Telephone company, Qwest and their subsidiaries.

Dave Fidanque, head of the ACLU of Oregon, said that while Oregon's government lacked authority over the nation's largest spy agency, "it does have jurisdiction over the telephone companies.'

"The PUC has tremendous power to both investigate and regulate if they find evidence of wrong-doing," he said.

The controversy stemmed from a May 11 report in the national newspaper USA Today that the National Security Agency's database of domestic calling records was compiled from data provided by Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth. The paper reported that Qwest refused to turn customer records over to the NSA.

The ACLU actions follow lawsuits filed against BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T for $200 billion by plaintiffs who alleged violations of privacy, telecommunications law and the U.S. Constitution. BellSouth and Verizon have denied furnishing the NSA with customer records and AT&T has declined comment.

President Bush and other administration officials have neither confirmed nor denied a USA Today report that the NSA is collecting the calling records of ordinary Americans in its effort to detect the plans of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Bush has said the administration's anti-terrorism surveillance programs are legal and constitutional.

The campaign urges members of the public to go to an ACLU Web site to add their names to the complaints about allegations that telecommunications companies illegally cooperated with the NSA to collect calling information on Americans.

Oregon Public Utility Commission spokesman Bob Valdez said his agency would investigate if it was determined that it had the authority to do so.

He said the ACLU request called for the PUC to "plow new ground," since in the past it has only ordered phone companies to produce documents such as correspondence and e-mails when investigating issues that are clearly part of the PUC's purview, such as rate-setting and service quality.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report