Fergie's Tech Blog

Qwest's Ex-Chief Is Suddenly Cast as Defender of Privacy

Ken Belson writes in The New York Times:

Joseph P. Nacchio's reputation has been through highs and lows in his long career as an executive at AT&T and Qwest Communications. He was an up-and-coming manager at AT&T, a daring challenger at the upstart Qwest and later, cited as an example of all the excesses of the telecommunications bubble of the 1990's.

Yesterday, Mr. Nacchio's image took another turn. His lawyer, Herbert J. Stern, said that Mr. Nacchio refused to provide the National Security Agency with access to private telephone records of Qwest customers, apparently the lone holdout among the major phone companies.

With that statement, Mr. Nacchio, who is under indictment for insider trading, has been instantly recast as a champion of the Fourth Amendment and a friend of the man on the street.

posted by Fergie @ 5/13/2006 07:07:00 AM