FBI Wiretaps Canceled for Non-Payment

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.'"

Re:I wish I considered this good news

[gnick]

No doubt. I'd like to see administrative action for screwing up the phone bill. I'd like to see arrests for warrantless wiretapping.

I wonder how much $$$

[rolfwind]

the phone companies are making helping the government spy on us?

Just asking.

Terrorism vs. Civil Rights vs. Being Paid On Time

[KoshClassic]

Apparently these wiretaps deal with issues that are important enough that the government feels that it needs to set asside our civil rights. Yet these issues and our civil rights are not as important as the phone company being paid on time. Why don't these laws force the phone companies to maintain the wiretaps regardless of when payment is received?

Hold on a freaking minute here!!

[zappepcs]

Let me get this straight. Dubya wants us to trust him and his 'boys' to listen in on our private lives, and promises that the information will not be misused. Then they go and show us how responsible they are by 'forgetting' to pay the phone bills? Actually stealing money, and other violations of public trust.

Is it just me, or do we need to start fixing the elections ourselves to ensure that there is a clean sweep through all of the US Government?

Diebold has given us a way to do it, and the powers that be keep insisting that it is not possible... Maybe we should just organize it ourselves?

With great power comes great need for oversight

[jheath314]

I've never understood the current mania of increased government powers with less accountability. I'm all for increasing the powers of the spooks to spy, just so long as it is balanced by increased accountability and oversight.

Increasing power while decreasing the oversight consistently gives bad results: at best we see this kind of sloppiness on the part of the FBI; at worst we get the kinds of abuses that have blackened America's reputation around the world.

Child porn is a trumped up boogeyman.

[FatSean]

Sorry, it's like 'drugs' and 'terrorists'. I don't buy for a second that the supposed threat merits the incredible reductions in privacy and rights the current 'cure' requires.

Life isn't precious to this government, so all this crap about 'for the children' really means 'for more governmental power'. I think of all the poor Iraqi children now dead thanks to our governments' actions and I think "American parents need to step up...they've been mooching off of the tax code forever...wI give them money so they can have the children they chose to have...why must I keep giving up freedoms for them too?!"

I just can't get upset about US children being involved in porn, when there are children all over the world being straight up murdered. We have the blood of many many Iraqi children on our hands...let's fix that shit first.

I'd rather be raped than dead.

The people being wiretapped weren't billed.

[Animats]

It could be worse. Back when the FBI was taking down the New York Mafia, the FBI didn't pay the bill on some of their wiretaps. The billing software then billed the other party on the connection, the Mafia guys being wiretapped. It's in Guliani's book about that operation.

Wiretaps are a billable service. See this DoJ document [usdoj.gov]. Search for "Wiretap Fees" in the document. A typical 30-day wiretap costs from $250 to $2600. There are base wiretap fees, monthly maintenance fees, per switch set-up fees, additional switch fees, uninterrupted continuation fees, call-bridging fees, "pinging" fees, extension fees, and fees for activity reports. Prosecutors can't challenge the fees in civil court because the wiretap orders are sealed by a criminal court.

90% of all wiretap requests now involve mobile phones, according to DoJ.

Re:I wonder how much $$$

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a good question, could I pay the phone companies more to not spy on me? I mean, why not? It's clearly a financial decision if this article is to be believed. If that was an option I'd consider getting a phone...

Keep in mind, if you want to reply to me you may not use the word "extortion".

Re:I wish I considered this good news

[sgt_doom]

While I am normally hesitant to criticize the FBI - after all, wasn't it the crack and elite FBI Passport Recovery Team which was able to miraculously recover Mohammed Atta's passport from the wreckage of the WTC in the aftermath of 9/11/01? (No doubt Atta cranked down his cockpit window prior to crashing and conveniently threw out his passport.)

Having said that, I would question the efficacy of the FBI in any matter whatsoever - they have an long history for taking the credit for the achievements and unquestioned bravery of the US Marshal Service (I'm completely serious now, just check out their history, etc.). When the fewmets hit the fan, the feebs of the FBI always manage to dis-a-frigging-pear into the woodwork.

Maybe that's why, when those recovered hard drives were returned from the German firm of Convar (just having been purchased by Kroll - in charge of overall security at the WTC on 9/11/01) their full bill hadn't been actually paid - ergo, they couldn't tell we, the people, the financial data on those recovered drives pertaining to shorts/puts on the airlines and companies residing in the WTC Towers, and more importantly, any and all currency speculation (the big kahuna, for those who are still clueless) taking part on the computer systems extant in the WTC Towers that day. (Sneaky and diabolical using the systems physically located in the Towers to do the dirty deeds, huh?)

Re:I wish I considered this good news

[Kadin2048]

Then we hear that the government can't possibly protect us when they have to follow the law.

Except that this is a very true statement.

The fallacy is believing that the government can protect you at all, or that it gives a shit either way.