Remember how the Democrats were accused of being weak on national security for objecting to the new FISA laws Bush wanted for limitless spying? He told us it was absolutely necessary for him to have his way to wiretap anyone he pleases, because you know we all could be terrorists.
Well as Chris Dodd fights against retroactive immunity for the telecommunications industry that acted as co-conspirators in Bush's illegal wiretapping, the telecoms have done something that comes from far left field. It turns out they are shutting off some of the FBI's wiretaps. Now why would they do something to endanger America and embolden the terrorists?
From The Boston Globe:
WASHINGTON—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. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.
So potentially useful evidence has stopped being recorded because the FBI can't pay their AT&T or Verizon bill? The phone companies (save for Qwest) were best buds with the Bush Administration when they thought they'd be making bank by allowing the government to wiretap everybody. Now that they realize the FBI is too incompetent to pay their bills, the new policy is f**k em.
Such is Corporate America in 2008, there isn't even a false sense of patriotism left at these companies.
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