Phone Company Shuts Down FBI Wire Taps Due to Unpaid Bills

From the Washington Post/AP:

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. ... 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 investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

Too bad it's too late to work this into season five of The Wire.

FBI Wiretaps Dropped Due to Unpaid Bills [WashintonPost.com via Crime Scene KC]

[#1 posted by jamietie , January 10, 2008 12:40 PM]

They already did it in season 2. The police were tapping a suspects phone and convinced the phone company not to shut it off for non-payment. That's what ended up tipping him off.

[#2 posted by mdhatter , January 12, 2008 4:49 PM]

Yeah, but that was the -criminal- not paying his bill, and realizing his phone wasn't shut off.

This is the people 'protecting' us. You know, with all that wiretap evidence they've collected under the PATRIOT Act to get all those terrorism convictions. You know, all zero of them.

Patriot 'act', indeed.