FBI Phone Lines Cut; Critical Surveillance Missed
I know all of you are very familiar with FISA and wiretapping, well, it appears that the FBI missed opportunities to collect key surveillance because they didn’t pay their outstanding phone bill. The lack of payment caused the FBI phone surveillance lines, in five field offices, to be disconnected. I’ll bet they were right in the middle of discovering the uber secret location of bin Laden, or the whereabouts of Aunt Mildred’s fruit cake that didn’t arrive last month…..when…. click.
Wait, it actually gets better, The FBI accounting system is so poor and out of date, that a telecommunication company employee was actually able to break into the system and steal $25,000. You know, I can actually sleep so much better just knowing how efficient our government is.
ABC News Investigative Report: By failing to pay its phone bills on time, the FBI had the line cut on a wiretap in a national security investigation ordered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and missed other opportunities to collect key surveillance, according to a government report released Thursday.
- “Telecommunications carriers actually disconnected 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 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act order, was halted, due to untimely payment,” Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine noted in the report.
- According to the report, the FBI uses confidential funds to support its covert and undercover activity, found several problems and challenges in how the bureau tracks and monitors these funds, which hide the bureau’s identity from criminals, vendors and public disclosure.
According to the report, the FBI receives invoices from telecommunication carriers for surveillance connections and renewal costs each month.
- “As part of our audit, we analyzed 990 telecommunication surveillance payments made by five field divisions, and found that over half of these payments were not made on time,” a summary of the report noted.
- “For example, a primary carrier sent a list to one of the field divisions we tested, detailing $66,000 in unpaid telecommunication costs resulting from surveillance activity.”
- FBI Assistant Director John Miller acknowledged that the bureau’s financial management system, which dates back to the 1980s, is not sufficient.
- The report also mentioned that the loose accounting of the confidential funds allowed a telecommunication specialist to steal more than $25,000 from an FBI field office. The employee pleaded guilty to the theft in June 2006.
- “The investigation showed that the employee took advantage of weak controls over field division confidential funds, to convert FBI moneys for her own use,” the report noted.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:22 am
How popular is Bush in Texas nowadays?
I hear people say, “if George Bush ran for Texas governor again, he’s win in a landslide.”
Surely, after 7 years, a $9 trillion dollar debt, an illegal and lethal war in Iraq, the subprime mortgage meltdown, failure to secure the borders and the ports, and the DoJ mess, even the GOP heehaws down there don’t like him.
Or do they?
January 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Christopher:
Bush is not popular in Texas at all, even among long time republicans. Many life long republicans that I know in Texas, turned against him in 2004 and chose not to vote.
When he won his first term as governor against Ann Richardson, we had no idea about Roveian politics. When he ran for his second term he assured everyone that if he won he would not seek the 2000 presidency. As soon as he won his second term as governor, he announced his run for president. That pissed many off.
Interestingly enough in the 2000 presidential primary, voter turn out was pretty high and buzz was McCain was scoring interest among Texas voters. Suddenly McCain was out and Bush was left. So the republican Texas voters went for Bush. Later (2005) we found out that Rove had “swiftboated” McCain about his adopted child of clolor by saying she was his love child.
Side note: Early voting in the 2000 Texas primary, the final voter numbers for McCain was 80,082. However McCain withdrew from the race so the general election voters went for Bush. I believe that had McCain stayed in he would have won Texas or a lest tied Bush in Texas.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
This is interesting.
Dallas is still a possible location for us at the end of the year. Also, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix and Palm Springs.
I keep reading Dallas has the 5th largest LGBT community in the nation. If it’s up to me, we will move to Fort Lauderdale. Hugely gay and tropical weather.
But wherever Jim gets a job as an RN, I’m fine. As long as there is no snow.
January 13th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Christopher:
Dallas has a lot to offer, but the do have ice stormed. However, that beats shoveling snow.
And just so you know Texas will be turning blue in the next election. We only need six or seven seats for the democrats to take control of the Texas legislature.
I understand from friends of mine who are RN’s, there is a great demand in Texas.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Only 6 to 7 seats? Really?
I have to go tell Jim. This will make his day.