To The Co-Conspirators Go The Spoils

Surprise! Verizon and AT&T Win Homeland Security Contracts.

Verizon Business, a unit of No. 2 U.S. telephone service provider Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), said on Wednesday it has won a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security worth around $678.5 million over 10 years.

...
AT&T Government Solutions, a business unit of AT&T Inc (T.N), won a $292 million contract to serve as the secondary network service provider in the Eastern and Western region.

And nothing for Quest.

Of course this makes sense as AT&T was a co-conspirator in the Bush Administation's illegal wiretapping program.

Verizon too.

But not Quest:

Mr. Nacchio [former head of Quest] said last year that he had refused an N.S.A. request for customers’ call records in late 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks, as the agency initiated domestic surveillance and data mining programs to monitor Al Qaeda communications.

So if if you are having a tough time getting the telcos immunity Mr. Bush, just pay them off.