Qwest CEO who resisted NSA spying is out of prison, "vindicated" by leaks

washingtonpost.com

14 points·pvnick··6 comments

I submitted this earlier when it was in the WSJ and not the WaPo - http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2013/09/27/nacchio-its-life-on-mars... - but this link adds more about the "vindication" et cetera.

"Mr. Nacchio said he still believes his insider trading prosecution was government retaliation for rebuffing requests in 2001 from the NSA to access his customers’ phone records. But some of the evidence he said he wanted to use was deemed classified and barred from being introduced.

An NSA spokeswoman declined to comment."

This shows how complicated people can be... From an outsiders view (obviously influenced by the media) it does seem like he sold the stock to keep his personal fortune as the company went down the tubes. But yet he's the only major executive to stand up to the government's spying. (Granted this was on the advice of his lawyers) Sometimes we find heroes in the strangest of places.

I would like to see an investigative journalist dig into the record to see if he truly was guilty of insider trading. It certainly looks bad from the outside.

If, in fact, the government was framing him as a form of retaliation, then of course it would look bad from the outside: if it didn't, they'd find some other, more-effective way to retaliate.

Also, the WSJ article provides some other insight into his personality. It sounds like he treats convicted drug offenders like actual human beings or something. :)

That's why I'd like to see an investigative journalist look into it. The big question is which source can we trust? For better or worse, the WSJ has it's own biases. (Anti-Obama and pro-big business - and this coming from a regular reader)

*Qwest

Gah, you're right, thanks!

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