For more than 30 years, Christoper Pyle has been campaigning for civil liberties.

Now he talks about the phone companies colluding with the US government in the surveillance of its citizens in this interview with Corporate Watchdog Radio:

"They do a lot of business with the government. It's very much like banks. What would motivate a bank to give up information? Well, the FBI are the bank inspectors. So you want to be on the right side of the government. In addition, there's a lot of money to be made in this business. A lot of NSA's electronic surveillance work is subcontracted out to private corporations. In addition, there are a number of private corporations that supply huge data bases to the government and search them for the government. Just another corporate connection besides AT&T and the telecommunications industry.

"Their chief lobbyist, well the, the company's chief lobbyist in Washington today is none other than former Attorney General John Ashcroft. And he has a firm that is making a great deal of money representing these data mining firms. This is like the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about in the 1950s. And now they have political friends in high places, are making a great deal of money, and can use that money to reward their friends in Congress when those friends in Congress block legislation that would protect your privacy or mine."

Check it out. He has plenty to say.