FBI Wiretaps Canceled for Non-Payment 166
grassy_knoll writes "Apparently, the FBI hasn't been paying the telcos for the wiretaps they've initiated, so the telcos have canceled the wiretaps. From the AP article linked: 'Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.
A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.
In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found.'"
Amnesty (Score:4, Insightful)
I wish I considered this good news (Score:5, Insightful)
Hilarious Greed (Score:5, Insightful)
How much is your own privacy worth to you? Can't put a price on it, can you? But it's amazing how fast some people can come up with a dollar amount when it's someone else's privacy. I guess the same can be said about a human life--unfortunately.
Here's something (that is hopefully) a bit enraging to think about. You may be paying taxes to your government that fund an agency to spy on you. Hell, with the NSA wiretapping, the odds are high. How do you like that business model? You're paying for someone to watch you and press charges against you if you do something wrong. What an investment!
And this is all very patriotic of the Telcos, serving their government up until they are past due on payments. All in the name of justice and freedom, indeed! This is genuinely amazing, you just can't even make this stuff up, people.
Re:I wish I considered this good news (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I wish I considered this good news (Score:4, Insightful)
comment rules for stories about wiretapping: (Score:5, Insightful)
2. make sure to confuse the need to question improperly obtained wiretap warrants with the need to question all wiretaps warrants, proper and improper
there, now you are ready to flame on in misunderstanding and miscommunication on the subject of wiretapping. enjoy!
Argument (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought they wiretapped out of patriotism (Score:5, Insightful)
Republican Heads Assplode (Score:2, Insightful)
- Are the phone companies bad for shutting off the FBI and thereby "aidin' terrirsts"?
OR
- Are the phone companies fully justified by free market economics in shutting off a deadbeat government agency that wouldn't even have a budget but stealing it in the form of taxes from hard working Americans?
Re:I wish I considered this good news (Score:5, Insightful)
The same people who are watching you to throw you in jail are committing grand theft themselves. Who's watching the watchers, indeed.
In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Insightful)
So it's OK to let your guard down now because those screwups at the FBI can't manage to pay their bills on time. Sorry, but I call bullshit on that one.
If somebody with clout thinks you need to be watched, rest assured that you are being watched.
Ah yes, human error and incompatible bureaucracies (Score:4, Insightful)
Instead we'll see Brazil...
Ha Ha! (Score:3, Insightful)
The Bureau had "no comment."
Re:I thought they wiretapped out of patriotism (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, regardless of what you think about all the warrentless wiretapping stuff, why the hell are the telcos even allowed to charge for this service to begin with?
If you believe that wiretaps (approved with due process of law) serve a purpose in criminal and/or national security investigations then how the hell can you condone the telcos charging for them? After they have received billions of dollars in tax breaks, Government assistance, laws mandating that they have the right of way to build their networks, Government granted monopolies, blah, blah, blah. After all that, they get to charge the Government money for this service? How much does it actually cost to setup a wiretap on a modern system? I'll go out on a limb and say it's probably all done from a keyboard.
Re:Recommendations (Score:4, Insightful)
It might be different if they said something more like agreed to 11 but rejected the other four. But as if now, they have only made statements about 15 of the 16 suggestions and those statements were limited in scope.
Re:Apparently... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Child porn is a trumped up boogeyman. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Child porn is a trumped up boogeyman. (Score:2, Insightful)
If we can't take care of our own, how can we possibly police the rest of the world? I agree that the tragedies overseas are important, but the purpose of a government is to take care of its own citizens first.
Re:Apparently... (Score:2, Insightful)
It just goes to show that small amounts of money speak louder than millions of angry citizens. The latter hasn't ended one wiretap, the former halted it immediately.
Re:In Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Insightful)
Republicans proving, yet again... (Score:2, Insightful)
...that 'government doesn't work' and 'government causes more problems than it solves'.
Or, at least, that applies to their government.
If I worked in the FBI, I'd be pissed. An agent go to all the work to collect evidence and get a real warrant for wiretapping and start it up and run the recordings every few days and suddenly, they discover that the wiretap has been cut off and not got anything for two days, and I bet it takes it a week to get back turned on.
Not because of any law, they're used to laws protecting rights and are trained how to work within the system of 'probable cause'. Not because the higher-ups have decided the investigation is a waste of time and the resources are better spent elsewhere, which is very annoying but understandable, and usually has a schedule: Get something by this date or it's over.
No, their investigation is derailed because the people running the FBI, the DOJ, and the rest of the executive branch can't pay their bills on time. Because they're incompetent buffoons. (I am aware Robert Mueller seems rather competent, but I'm assuming the failure was elsewhere...he's surely not in charge of paying bills.)
Ironically, the first word in the FBI motto is 'Fidelity', one meaning of which is 'careful and exact discharge of obligations'. (Hence financial services using it as a name.)
Re:With great power comes great need for oversight (Score:3, Insightful)
B) Cheap
C) Properly
Pick two.
Which two do you think the government picked?
Hint: Accountability & oversight are expensive and slow