Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s consistent failures to pay phone bills on time. A Justice Department audit released this week blamed the lost connections on the FBI’s lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000 (and they will cut us off if we miss one bill?) In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation “was halted due to untimely payment,” the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government’s most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.
