AT&T to say WorldCom diverted government calls-reports

[Gman]

<snip>
NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) - AT&T Corp (T) will offer evidence on Monday that some telephone calls it says rival MCI diverted through Canada to avoid tariffs were placed by government agencies, a move lawyers say could pose national security risks, reports said on Monday.
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AT&T will claim that WorldCom rerouted some calls made by the State Department and other government agencies through Canada, The Times said in a subsequent article on Monday, citing a senior AT&T executive.
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If WorldCom rerouted calls through Canada to save money, the calls would not be protected from eavesdroppers who could compromise national security or other confidential information, the newspaper said, citing industry lawyers.
</snip>

And this is the same company that got the no bid contract to "rebuild" the cellular phone system in Iraq. Why does that figure?

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/newsarticle.asp?guid=%7b37D644F8-29A1-4F98-9B3C-491F06D537CD%7d&siteid=mktw&dist=nbs&symb=

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. oh, great

I wonder what money-saving security risks they are trying with their exclusive contract in Iraq?

[kysrsoze]

2. Down with WorldCom

I work for an RBOC. I have many more issues with WorldCom than I do with AT&T. AT&T has mainly played fair, while WorldCom has systematically cheated its customers, competitors and the government. How this company can be allowed to stay in business and continue to get government contracts is absolutely disgusting. I'd love to know whose pockets they are lining to continue getting those contracts.

I say, break the company up and sell off the pieces. There is still a lot of competition w/ AT&T, Sprint and a boatload of low-cost providers.

[worldcomflunky]

3. "Down with Worldcom"!!! Bullshit to that.

Screw you buddy. Yea....let's punish 55,000 employees along with their families for the fraud committed by a few. All the bad apples from the past are loooooong gone and the new management team has done a ton of work to get our house in order. Every employee has been distributed a Code of Ethics book that we not only were required to read but we had to sign a statement we would abide by it. One infraction and your toast around here now for any monkey business. Your just afraid the RBOC you work for is going to get your ass kicked by us when emerge from bankruptcy a lot leaner and meaner than your debt ridden ass. Punish Bernie and Sullivan but don't punish the 55,000 of us here trying to make a living in Chimpy's wonderful economy.

[kysrsoze]

4. Very Indicative of Your Company's Attitude

"Screw you buddy." Yeah, isn't that WorldCom's attitude toward its customers, competitors and the govt? Again, this is the company that committed the largest financial fraud ever. I don't care if Bernie Ebbers or whoever did it. A LOT of people have to have been in on it to do what AT&T is alleging.

"Your just afraid the RBOC you work for is going to get your ass kicked by us when emerge from bankruptcy a lot leaner and meaner than your debt ridden ass."

This one makes a lot of sense too. We have debt b/c we actually have to purchase, install and maintain infrastructure - even for your customers. It's not as if you've already had an unfair advantage over everyone else w/ UNE-P rates. That will change soon enough.

Say, can my company also wipe out all our debt and charge it off to everybody else? We'd be in a hell of a position too, wouldn't we? We deserve it more anyway b/c we don't defraud our customers and competitors. Then again, if we were to start masking our calls and charging off their expenses to all our competitors, that would make it even easier to compete with WorldCom. I should think about doing that with my mortgage too. Hmmm.

Why should people at our company and those of your competitors suffer, lose wages and potentially lose their jobs b/c WorldCom purposely defrauded EVEYRONE and still comes out of debt with a clean slate?

And why should a company which resells others' products at a loss to the actual provider and commits the largest fraud in history still be allowed to get government contracts? Down with WorldCom. You can come work for us.

[worldcomflunky]

5. Don't worry. You may get your wish.

You may yet get your wish of having another 55,000 innocent people out in the streets and in the unemployment line. Even if we aren't broke up and sold in peices there is still no gaurantee we can make it as an on going concern. The way Bernie and his minions ran this company it is a miracle we have made it this far. Bankruptcy or no bankruptcy. Those fools gobbled up close to 70 companies and in doing so created the biggest ponzi scheme in Corporate history.

A LOT of people got hurt over it and it wasn't just investors. A lot of my fellow employees got to fall on their swords over the misdeads of a few. We have been through 8 large layoffs over the last 2 1/2 years and I have seen a lot of friends get shown the door as a result. Hell....there is a rumor we get to have the fun of going through another round next month. You ever worked at a job where there is absolutely NO JOB SECURITY? Zilch....none? It's not very fun. It's also not very fun to hear the cries coming from our competetors yelling that they want the remaining 55,000 of us to also fall on our swords over the fraud of a few.

Just remember when your dancing in the streets over our demise that the 55,000 of us are not the ones living in mansions like Sullivan and we weren't the ones that loaned ourselves over $400 Million like Bernie did. We are living day to day without knowing if we will have a job tomorrow. Punish Bernie, Sullivan and EVERYBODY else that profited from their fraud but do not punish the entire company.

As for shedding our debt, last time I checked that is what bankruptcy is for. The whole purpose of having bankruptcy code in the form of Ch. 7, Ch. 11, and Ch. 13 is to shed debt for both businesses and individuals. Also last time I checked, not just anybody can file. You have to prove insolvency. Apparently, we did that or we couldn't have filed. Apparently the RBOC you work for is not insolvent or you could file Ch. 11 also and shed your debt. Since your company apparently isn't qualified to file Ch. 11, then I assume your making profit. Good for you and your company. What's wrong with you guys continuing to make a profit and co-existing with us in the market place with us making a profit. No harm in that in my opinion. Everybody's happy. If your company is actually hiring people, then it doesn't sound like your to bad off then. We sure as hell aren't hiring. Let the 55,000 of us try to restore this company to profitability verses just breaking us up. If we don't make it, then you will probably be seeing my resume along with 55,000 other people.

[kysrsoze]

6. I won't be dancing in the streets about it.

I know WorldCom ruined MCI. The same garbage happened to US West (Qwest). However, it's not fair for WorldCom to get to wipe out all of its debts and continue to get lucrative government contracts over those companies that play by the rules. I'd be OK seeing MCI LD survive, but the rest should be sold off and absorbed elsewhere.

I'm sorry that you risk losing your job. It's not fair to you or anybody else in that situation. However, we also lost a lot of good people over the past few years too. We have eaten up potential losses with massive cuts to our salary increases, bonuses, operating expenses, capital investment, etc., along with big increases in medical insurance cost to make the level of profit the shareholders expected, or else we would be subject to thousands of further layoffs. We have also been prevented from hiring the necessary people to get our work done. For a long time, we were also worried about our jobs. I haven't seen my boss in-person once in 18 months. The downturn hit everyone hard.

[worldcomflunky]

7. True........True.....The ENTIRE Industry was a house of cards

The whole thing was a bubble with every Tom, Dick and Harry borrowing money as fast as they could to build their networks. Keep in mind we aren't the only one in the Telecom business that has filed Ch. 11. Do you think Global Crossing, Mcloed, Williams Communications(now Wiltel), Winstar Communications....etc should all be forced to liquidate? If not, then why not? Just because we happen to have a bigger debt load we are wiping out doesn't mean it's fair to liquidate us and not all the other telecom companies that have been forced to file Ch. 11. If they can continue to operate, then we should be allowed to continue to operate.

As for the government contracts, it's not like we have a monopoly on them. They are all up for open bid. If we are getting them, then apparently we have the best bid among the companies wanting them. I doubt there is any back door monkey business going on behind the scenes. At least not now there is. Let the company with the best bid have the contracts. It's that simple.

[kysrsoze]

8. I guess I would be happier if there were a fair amount of debt load left

Not enough to sink the company, but enough for a level playing field. Yeah, I do agree though that a LOT of people were beaten down by the bubble burst. It was pretty rough. Know what I'm really ticked about? The cable companies don't have to allow access to anyone, regardless of how much would be paid. No competition there. Cable TV is ridiculous these days too.

[worldcomflunky]

9. "Fair" can be interpreted a 100 different ways.....

If you let 100 different people look at the same exact facts. Your always going to get different versions of what is "fair" no matter what the situation. Your interpretation of fair is that we should apparently have to "retain" a sizable portion of our debt load. It's your opinion. My opinion is different.

However, let's not lose fact that Wall Street should share at least a little bit of this burden. I am no expert but to give a company close to 20 to 30 Billion dollars in UNSECURED debt is flat out insanity.

I am also speaking from experience here. I worked at CFS in Tulsa for over 3 years where we were apparently a test case study for how to f*ck Wall Street out of Billions by you know how. Good old Aurther Anderson was our Auditor back then also and helped us f*ck Wall Street out of over a Billion dollars. My point being the fact that yes, we committed fraud. However, Wall Street has a responsibility also not to give fools like Bill Bartmann and Bernie Ebbers billions of dollars and it not be secured.

The 1990's was nothing but a pure greed on Wall Street. Google search Commericial Financial Services or better yet Bill Bartmann to see what kind of shit I have been having to put up with since 1996. NO JOB SECURITY FOR OVER 7 DAMN YEARS!!! It sucks big time. Which is why I don't appreciate the fact people are calling for 55,000 people to fall on their swords because a few fucks swindled Wall Street. FUCK WALL STREET!! My experience at CFS proves they deserve no sympathy. Here is an article from a few days ago about a couple of other CFS execs getting indicted. We were committing Corporate fraud before committing corporate fraud was cool. I think we were the test case study for Aurther Anderson.

[worldcomflunky]

10. Oooops. Forgot the link.

Like I said....we were committing corporate fraud before anybody else so I have a little experience in this area. 4,000 people went down in flames thanks to these bastards at the top. It's no different now. No reason for 55,000 people to go down in flames if it can be prevented.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Fraud%20Indictment