Two of the three telecommunications firms named in a USA Today article as having given bulk phone records to the United States' military surveillance agency denied the allegations earlier this week.

The article claimed that the National Security Agency--the federal organization tasked with protecting U.S. secrets and conducting surveillance on foreign enemies--secretly collected the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans after being provided that data by AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon. The paper alleged that the NSA attempted to mine the data to detect any threatening activity by terrorists in the United States.

BellSouth denied the allegations, saying that--following the article--the company conducted an internal review and found that "no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA."

Verizon used even stronger language in its statement.

"One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers’ domestic calls," the company said in a statement. "This is false."

The revelation that the NSA--an agency traditionally tasked with spying on foreign countries and protecting U.S. communications from surveillance--tapped the communications of U.S. citizens came last December. A follow-up article by the New York Times asserted that the agency is also mining large amounts of Internet connection and e-mail routing data to find patterns that could link certain people with terrorists. Two class-action lawsuits have already been filed against AT&T following revelations that the company allowed the NSA to have full access to any data crossing its network.

A fourth telecommunications firm, Quest Communications, refused the NSA's request for its customers phone records based on the advice of legal counsel, the former CEO said in a statement released last week.