Israel Companies Handle Sensitive U.S. Spying Data

You might take comfort in the assumption that - if the U.S. government is spying on Americans - at least patriotic Americans are handling our sensitive information.

However, at least two foreign companies play key roles in processing the information.

Specifically, an Israeli company called Narus processes all of the information tapped by AT &T (AT & T taps, and gives to the NSA, copies of all phone calls it processes), and an Israeli company called Verint processes information tapped by Verizon (Verizon also taps, and gives to the NSA, all of its calls).

Even worse, two top Verint executives have already pled guilty of fraud and various felonies. And the founder and CEO of Verint is on the run. He's literally a fugitive from justice hiding out in Namibia.

The above information comes from James Bamford, the Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings for almost a decade - where he won a number of journalism awards for his coverage national security issues - whose articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including cover stories for the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and is the only author to write any books (he wrote 3) on the NSA.