You Can't Make This Stuff Up
Last Updated: Apr 1st, 2008 - 10:16:16
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Reuters reports that at least one telephone company has discontinued international wiretaps placed under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to pay its phone bills.
According to an audit conducted by the Justice Department’s Inspector General, “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 Inspector General’s audit reportedly followed a 2006 case in which an FBI employee pleaded guilty to the theft of more than $25,000 earmarked for undercover telecom services.
Responding to the audit findings, the FBI acknowledges that its accounting system is inadequate, but says that “the FBI will not tolerate financial mismanagement”
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