By: E&P Staff BellSouth Corp. on Thursday demanded USA Today retract claims in its recent front-page story that revealed the company, and others, had a contract with the National Security Agency to turn over customers' telephone records.
But USA Today Editor Ken Paulson told National Public Radio, "Our sources have told us they think we got it right -- they know we've got it right. And they reiterated that what they told us is what showed up in the newspaper."
BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher denied the company had a contract with the spy agency and did not give access or provide phone records, allegedly to root out terrorist llnks.
BellSouth "insists that your newspaper retract the false and unsubstantiated statements you have made regarding our company," the company said in a letter to USA Today President Craig Moon and the general counsel of the newspaper's parent company Gannett Co., according to Reuters.
The NSA and the Bush administration have refused to confirm or deny the USA Today report, which also named Verizon and AT&T as participants.
"We did receive the letter this afternoon. We're reviewing it," said USA Today spokesman Steve Anderson, according to Reuters. "And we will be responding."
But Paulson told NPR: "That story has been out there for more than a week and no one has refuted the core reporting of USA Today -- that there is in fact a database that keeps track of American phone calls in some form. ... We were surprised because we had been talking to both companies for literally weeks. They knew this story was being written. They knew what we were going to say. And frankly, they took some time in deciding how to craft a response."
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