Yahoo! General Counsel Michael Callahan hasn't yet set foot on Capitol Hill, but the congressmen are already eager to tear him to shreds. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos said on Monday that Yahoo's behavior was "inexcusably negligent at best and deliberately deceptive" at worst. Callahan is scheduled to appear before Congress later today.
The angry retorts from Congress are in response to Yahoo's explanation for the discrepancy in last years testimony regarding information sharing with Chinese officials about one of their citizens.
Congressman Lantos seems to be the lead champion in the Foreign Affairs Committee against Yahoo on the disclosure of information with the Chinese authorities about native journalist Shi Tao's online activities. To his credit, he has been a long-time proponent of human rights, calling attention to many examples of it during his tenure as congressman.
Still, it strikes me as hypocritical (imagine that, coming from the government) that we have government sanctioned warrantless wiretaps in our country that the communications industry actually profits from, and concurrently we have FTC hearings taking place on privacy in our own commercial sector.
Congress, remove the plank from thine own eye, before your remove the speck from Yahoo's.