More on the telco mumbo-jumbo.

This CNN story says Verizon has denied having a "contract" with the NSA to turn over customer data. Contract? Is this about synergies? The Verizon statement itself said there was no "agreement." But same difference, I think. Did we think Verizon got a small ownership stake in the NSA?

This is nice too ...

As the President has made clear, the NSA program he acknowledged authorizing against al-Qaeda is highly-classified. Verizon cannot and will not comment on the program. Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to it.

Why do I feel like this is like a grade schooler who's suddenly gotten a Junior G-Man Secret Decoder Ring?

I'll buy the idea that what the NSA is doing with this data is highly classified. The notion that what the telcos are giving to the NSA is classified strikes me as a bit rich.

I'll leave it to some telco experts to decipher the terminology and conceptual messiness that I'm sure underlies this mumbojumbo. But I'm sure that if the USA Today story was really false in any normal, reality-based sense of the term they would just say so and not resort to all the gobbledygook and parsing. And if they'd been in a position to deny it they wouldn't have waited like, what, a week to get around to it?