UnionTelecard.com Receives a Face Lift

The perennial super power in the prepaid calling card business just launched it's newly redesigned Uniontelecard.com which features less product selection but all cards are now fully rechargeable and feature pin less dialing. They no doubt realized that most of their cards were not suitable for the online consumer and decided to limit it to about 8 cards.This new web site design and focus on rechargeable cards now make Union Telecard Alliance one of the most powerful online retailer of phone cards.

Telecom Charity Fundraiser upset with amount of charity phone card donation for Dancing with Stars Cast a Vote Fundraiser

The Multiple Sclerosis Society is disappointed that one of its board members has criticised Telecom for the amount of money it gains from Dancing with the Stars donations.

It costs $1 to cast a vote on the hit show and board member Brian Stevens has expressed disappointment that Telecom keeps 40 cents of that. The remainder goes to a charity of the dancer's choice.

Society president Gay Dickie says Mr Stevens was not speaking on behalf of the board. She says the board did discuss the issue, but the society is delighted to have benefited from the support of Telecom and the show.

Ms Dickie says the society did very well out of the show last year and that helped many MS sufferers across the country.

Update: Congress puts in there two cents to phone card calling record collecting!

Congress Vows Scrutiny of Phone-Record Collecting (Update)

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. lawmakers are vowing to take a close look at the government's secret collection of millions of phone records and will demand answers from President George W. Bush's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
Disclosure of the National Security Agency program yesterday reverberated across Capitol Hill, where members of Congress introduced legislation, called for investigations and pledged to order executives from the biggest U.S. phone companies to testify about their role in the effort. Air Force General Michael Hayden, the former NSA chief nominated to head the CIA, will get extra scrutiny, Democratic and Republican lawmakers said.

"We are on our way to a major constitutional confrontation on the Fourth Amendment guarantees on unreasonable searches and seizure," said Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who sits on the intelligence subcommittee that was briefed on the program. "This is also going to present a growing impediment to the confirmation to General Hayden."

Bush, responding to the outcry, made a hastily arranged appearance at the White House where he defended the administration's spying efforts as necessary to fight terrorists. He didn't confirm or deny the program, which was reported yesterday by USA Today. "The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," Bush said. `"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

Three Phone Companies
The newspaper, citing anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the matter, said Houston-based AT&T Inc., Atlanta- based BellSouth Corp. and New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. turned over the records to the NSA, which compiled a massive database with the information. Only Qwest Communications International Inc. refused to give the government the data.

Herbert Stern, a New Jersey lawyer representing Joseph Nacchio, who was Qwest's chief executive officer when the government requested the records, issued a statement today saying the effort began after Congress in October 2001 passed the Patriot Act, which expanded law enforcement powers. Stern said Nacchio asked whether a warrant had been issued to back the NSA request for phone records.

"When he learned that no such authority had been granted and that there was a disinclination on the part of authorities to use any legal process," Stern said, "Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act."

Intelligence Committee
Nacchio left the company in June 2002 and now faces criminal charges of insider trading of $101 million of Qwest shares. He also is accused in a civil Securities and Exchange Commission suit of directing a $2.5 billion accounting fraud at the company.

News of the NSA program didn't sit well with several members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that will hold hearings on Hayden's nomination. Hayden ran the NSA from 1999 to 2005. Panel member Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, met with Hayden today and said he supports the nomination. Still, the senator predicted Hayden will be grilled about NSA spying during his confirmation hearing. "He is going to have to explain what was his role to start with," Hagel said. "Did he put that program forward? Whose idea was it? Why as it started? He knows that he is not going to be confirmed without answering these questions."

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said she supports Hayden's confirmation though she said the government needs to be more forthcoming on the program's scope. "We need a CIA director in place," Collins said.

Security and Liberty
Outside Hagel's office, Hayden defended the NSA programs. "The only purpose of the agency's activities is to protect the security and the liberty of the American people," Hayden said. "Everything the agency has done is lawful."

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, Chairman Arlen Specter demanded that executives from the three phone companies testify before Congress about their agreement to turn over customer data. "I am determined to get to the bottom of this," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, who added that he will subpoena the telephone companies if they decline to appear before his committee voluntarily.
Hayden, nominated for the CIA post this week by Bush, was already facing scrutiny for his role in creating another surveillance program of wiretapping phone calls and e-mails between the U.S. and other countries without a court warrant when one of the parties is believed to be a terrorist.

'Concerned' About Program
In the House of Representatives, Majority Leader John Boehner said he is 'concerned' about the program disclosed yesterday "because I'm not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information."

Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said Hayden `"will have a lot more explaining to do." Some Republican senators defended the program described in the newspaper report. "They are not tapping our phones or getting our conversations," said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Spokesmen for Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth declined to comment, citing national security concerns, and said they follow the law. NSA spokesman Don Weber said the agency "operates within the law" and takes its legal responsibilities seriously.
USA Today said the records collected by the NSA identify the phone numbers people call but not their names, addresses, other personal information or the contents of calls.

The NSA used the records for a computer analysis that looks for patterns that could show terrorist plotting, the newspaper reported. The program looks at details like how long calls last, where they originate, when they take place and what number is called.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net;
James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net.

Should the NSA look at your International Calling Card Phone Records?

The National Security Agency has been collecting information on millions of domestic phone calls, according to a report this week in USA Today.

Source:
www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

CNN.com asked readers whether they think it is appropriate for the government to monitor telephone records. Here is a selection of the responses, some of which have been edited:
If I had to choose between a one in ten thousand chance that I or someone I love might be killed by a terrorist in any given year or living in a police state, I'd take the former. The goal of terrorism is to make us live in fear and to destroy our way of life. If we become a nation of secret laws, pervasive surveillance, and midnight justice (Guantanamo and secret prisons, anybody?), then the terrorists have *won*, even if there is never another attack on US soil.
by: Loren Davidson, California

I believe it is the old saying that applies to this: "If you have nothing to hide, what is the problem?" I am a Democrat, but you will rarely find me any[where] but middle on the spectrum. If the NSA wants to collect data about calling patterns, without monitoring them, that is fine. And if they find that there is a particular household or geographic area that is placing calls to known terrorists or less than peaceful or stable countries, they should be able to monitor those calls, with the proper authority giving them that permission. I think this is a compromise to this intelligence impasse that will please both sides. Whether I like Bush or not (Which I DO NOT, he is the silliest man I have ever seen) we are at war, and it is nice to see that we are doing something to protect ourselves on the home front, rather than only sending troops to foreign sand pits on primitive lands.
by: Bryan, St. Petersburg, Florida

[Should the government monitor phone records?} Absolutely not. They should have to uphold the Constitution. Who is Bush to be above the law? He and the NSA should get a court order. There is no privacy with him in office. Shame on the Congress and Senate.
by: Peggy, Haworth, New Jersey

Large amount of resources to track and analyze a huge volume of calls, with a tiny minority of them used by terrorists. Besides privacy, resource usage, and agreed-upon patterns to be used issues, since this information is public, all terrorists have to do is use public phone boxes and telephone cards to ensure anonymity and bypass the database searches.
by: Richard Millham, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I am not sure where to direct my outrage. Should it be at the NSA, the Bush Administration and my soon-to-be ex-phone company for spying on me without a warrant? Should it be Congress for claiming it might be legal and doing nothing to pass laws that would make it illegal? Or should it be my fellow Americans which, some polls say, don't care if they are spied upon?
by: Jeannine Meyers, Lebanon, Tennessee

More and more our intelligence services are taking on the characteristics of the former KGB. It is exceedingly difficult to understand what my calls to Home Depot, Spiegel, Macy's, and my doctor could possibly do to enhance our national security. Next it will be necessary to monitor our credit card purchases. Billions are being spent on new database technology -- for what? It's time we woke up and let our government know that they have to do more than play the terrorism card whenever they want to erode our way of life. No, the government should not monitor domestic telephone call records -- not unless they have a specific target, approved by our judicial branch.
by: Stephen Evans, Reno, Nevada

Unless your phone call is to a suspicious person, I wouldn't worry about being eavesdropped on. And if it a suspicious call at first, it is likely they will stop listening after awhile because I doubt the government cares to hear about your cousin's gastric bypass surgery.
by: Jason, Plant City, Florida

As well-intentioned as the the call records database and eavesdropping programs may be, they're taking us down a very dark path. It's these types of gradual encroachments that will inevitably smother the freedoms that are so fundamental to the American way of life. "Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government." -Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (1748-1832)
by: Jared Pace, Durham, North Carolina

NO!!! I do not think the government should monitor domestic telephone call records!!! This country has always held dear the tradition that our personal lives should be free of Governmental intrusion absent probable cause to intrude. If we step back and take a look, our right to privacy has been pirated away bit by bit over the last several years under the guise of 9-11. Our government must find ways to conduct our intelligence without using it as an excuse to intrude in to the private lives of it's citizens. Personally, I believe that if we knew the full story, we would find that much more than "benign" compiling of phone numbers is and has been going on. Do I trust the Bush administration? NO!!! Do I trust my government in general? NOT ANY MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!Penny Hoffman, Omak, Washington
From my understanding, what's being archived is basically "who called who" and not the contents of the conversation (e.g., tapping of the phone lines). Putting such archiving in the context of the post 9/11 U.S.A., it seems logical to do such a thing. However, I doubt that's the real cause for all the ruckus. What's really going on here is anti-Bush citizens and those naive souls unwilling/unable to critically approach these activities jumping on a bandwagon of popular rhetoric. Grow up, people.
by: Chionesu George, Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina

Would you believe a thief who robs you and tells you it's for your own good???
by: Mark Roberts, Birmingham, Alabama

Everybody has the right to have a secret even if it is as a stupid as a cooking recipe.
by: Alex, Atlanta, Georgia

I highly value my privacy; however, to protect the security and safety of the people of the U.S. and their interests, it does not at all bother me that NSA monitors my phone records. This is, I believe, a legitimate invasion of my privacy. I think it is a travesty that this information has been leaked to the press. The fact that NSA is doing this does not need to be public knowledge.
by: Matt Rodatus, Frederick, Maryland

The issue is not whether or not the government should monitor domestic telephone call records. The issue is whether or not the Executive branch should be able to do this without oversight. One of the major elements of the Constitution is the system of checks and balances. To say the Executive branch can do whatever it deems necessary, in secrecy and without oversight by the other two branches of government, seems a mockery of not only the words, but also the spirit of the Constitution. The Framers were well aware of consequences of an unchecked and unquestioned executive (another George, in fact, King George III). We, apparently, have forgotten.
by: K. Kono, Boston, Massachusetts

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/12/feedback.phone.records/index.html

Its Your International Phone Card Call: Should the NSA look at your International Calling Card Phone Records?