Threat Level reports on new information about the role of big telco in the president's warrantless wiretapping program:
The FBI routinely failed to pay telecom companies promptly for providing phone and internet lines to the FBI's impressive domestic surveillance architecture -- resulting in at least one phone company cutting off a foriegn intelligence wiretap until the FBI paid its bill, according to an audit released Thursday.
The Justice Department's Inspector General also found that telecom charges and invoices for surveillance overwhelmed the FBI's ability to keep track of their bill and that one field office got a $66,000 bill from a carrier for unpaid surveillance work.Some of the problems stemmed from telecoms billing multiple times for individual surveillance warrants -- which, in the case of Cox Communications, costs $1500 for a 30-day wiretap order. But telecoms also bill the FBI for internet connections and phone lines that connect the carrier's wiretap-friendly switches with the FBI's wiretap software system known as the Digitial Collection System.
Former FBI agent and now ACLU natiional seucrity policy counsel Mike German directed his ire at the telecoms who happily played along with the government's warrantless spying and let the FBI illegally get customer records following false promises to get surveillance today with a promise to pay a court order tomorrow.
"To put it bluntly it sounds as though the telecoms believe it when FBI says warrant is in the mail but not when they say the check is in the mail," German said.
So let me get this straight: We are supposed to give them immunity from prosecution for breaking the law because they were "doing their patriotic duty," even though it was a for-profit operation that they shut down when the bills weren't paid on time? Are you kidding me?
UPDATE: One other point worth making: If this program really is all that stands between us and the evil doers.... if it really is one of the most important fronts in this generational war... if it really is one of the most important programs defending the homeland.... why didn't someone do something to make sure the bills were paid on time?!?
The fact that this was able to happen once, let alone multiple times, suggests that this program is not nearly as essential as its supporters have claimed. Unless, of course, it is, in which case this administration has demonstrated yet again just how blindingly incompetent it is.
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