When customers don't pay their phone bills they lose the right to that service. The phone company doesn't care who you are, even if you're the FBI and working on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
It seems that the
FBI in some cases is not on top of paying their bills.
"Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence, including an instance where delivery of intercept information required by a ... FISA order was halted due to untimely payment," the audit said.
An audit was conducted after a FBI employee pleaded guilty to stealing more than $25,000 that was meant to pay for undercover telecoms services.
There were no details about much of the wiretap case due to the sensitive law-enforcement information that is said to be involved.
The wiretapping of phones without a warrant is a pet project of the Bush Administration. It has been critics as overly intrusive and unconstitutional and up for another term of renewal before Congress. The FISA is manned by several different agencies. The FBI helps in the listening in on people's telephone conversations to ensure national security.
