BellSouth seeks retraction over NSA claims

updated 5:53 p.m. ET May 18, 2006

ATLANTA - BellSouth Corp. is pressing USA Today to retract claims in a story asserting that the telecommunications company provided phone records of its customers to the National Security Agency.

The Atlanta-based company's chief lawyer, Marc Gary, sent a letter Thursday to the publisher of the newspaper, Craig Moon, and general counsel, Thomas Chapple, asking Gannett Co.'s flagship newspaper to retract "false and unsubstantiated statements" made in a May 11 story, BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said.

Both BellSouth and Verizon Communications Inc., another company cited in the USA Today report, denied this week that they provided calling records to the NSA.

USA Today spokesman Steve Anderson said he had not seen the letter and the newspaper has not made a decision regarding any action it might take.

The newspaper said in a statement released earlier this week that it remained confident in its coverage of the phone database story, but that it would take a closer look.

MORE FROM U.S. BUSINESS

U.S. business Section Front

SportsBiz: Golf industry gets hit hard   Report: Ex-AOL boss may bid to buy Yahoo   Mets: Citi Field to remain name of ballpark GE lowers its sights on fourth-quarter profits Airlines ready to slash more flights JPMorgan cutting 9,200 jobs at failed thrift Pilgrim's Pride files for bankruptcy protection J&J buying Mentor for $1.07 billion Interest is churning for hydroelectric power Sources call Microsoft-Yahoo deal ‘total fiction’ U.S. business Section Front   Add U.S. business headlines to your news reader: