ATLANTA, May 16 (UPI) -- Refuting media reports, Atlanta-based BellSouth says it did not provide its customer telephone records to the U.S. National Security Agency.
The company said it conducted an internal review after news reports that BellSouth along Verizon and AT&T, had provided the information to the NSA, reports CNN.
"Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract (with the NSA) exists, and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA," a company statement said.
"We have provided no customer information whatsoever to the NSA," CNN quoted a BellSouth spokesman as saying.
Separately, CNN reported Verizon and AT&T each issued statements saying they could neither confirm nor deny they had given customer records to the NSA.
President Bush says the NSA intelligence activities are lawful and target only suspected al-Qaida operatives, and that the privacy of ordinary Americans "is being fiercely protected."
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said he will call phone company executives to testify about their involvement with NSA, the report said.
