PRESS RELEASE - 1/24/2006

American Privacy Violated By Two Israeli-Based Companies

Like most Americans, I am outraged by the reckless and brazen way American telephone companies freely sell the phone records of their customers to anyone with the money to buy them.

However, as bad as this is, the situation is far worse than has been reported and it calls for strong congressional action to put an end to this blatant violation of privacy.

The facts are these: the 25 largest telephone companies in America have contracts with two Israeli-based companies to provide 411 information service and billing services for all private calls made by the customers of these 25 American telephone companies!

These two Israeli companies are AMDOCS LTD. and COMVERSE INFOSYS., which has offices across the U.S. This second company, CONVERSE INFOSYS. also supplies wiretapping and other electronic spying equipment to law enforcement agencies - state, local and federal across this country!

Thus, two foreign-owned companies with connections to the Israeli government, has been given the ability to spy on every single American citizen, and it has been established the spy gear sold to U.S law enforcement agencies to spy on American citizens such as the Bush administration has been doing, has built into it, the technology to allow Israel to spy on all U.S. law enforcement agencies using the Israeli-supplied equipment! 

While I share the concern about phone records being sold as expressed by Congressman Dan Lipinski and Senator Richard Durbin, I challenge them and the entire Illinois congressional delegation - all incumbents Democrats and Republicans alike, to take action and call for an investigation by congress into the tremendous power Israel has acquired to violate the privacy of every American citizen who makes a telephone call. And oh yes, these Israeli companies also do credit checks!

This outrageous situation must be investigated and the contracts between these Israeli companies and U.S. telephone companies must be terminated.

For the congress to do less than this, would be an open betrayal of the people of this country in the interests of a treacherous foreign nation.

Arthur J. Jones

(This press release was sent out to 21 mass-media organizations; channel 2, 5, 7, 9, 32 - as well as the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Suntimes, Daily Southtown, and Southwest News Herald - and several foreign language newspapers. Thus far none has seen fit to print this press release, are they being blackmailed by the Israelis?)