This bit of news might be of interest. Ed
A US government audit has revealed that a telephone company cut off an FBI international wiretap after the agency failed to pay its bill on time.
The audit by the Justice Department’s inspector general faulted the FBI for poor handling of money used in undercover investigations, which it said made the agency vulnerable to theft and mishandled invoices.
It cited the case in which a wiretap under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which governs electronic spying in terrorism and intelligence cases, was disrupted due to an overdue bill.
“Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI…”, the audit said.
This resulted in evidence being lost, including one instance where “intercept information” required by a FISA order had to be stopped, it added
