Questions Raised for Phone Giants in Spy Data Furor

Qwest executive who held out against domestic spying left in 2002 pursued by insider trading claims. Was it retaliation?--BUZZFLASH

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: May 13, 2006

The former chief executive of Qwest, the nation's fourth-largest phone company, rebuffed government requests for the company's calling records after 9/11 because of "a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process," his lawyer said yesterday.

The statement on behalf of the former Qwest executive, Joseph P. Nacchio, followed a report that the other big phone companies — AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon — had complied with an effort by the National Security Agency to build a vast database of calling records, without warrants, to increase its surveillance capabilities after the Sept. 11 attacks.