Every morning, I sit down and slowly wake myself up with a cup of bad coffee and The Washington Post. When I flipped through the paper on Jan. 11, I almost spat my coffee across the funnies. It seems that those pesky wiretaps, placed on American citizens by executive decree, are being turned off because the FBI forgot to pay its phone bill.
This is just too much; it's like the Justice Department is begging for even more criticism. The department is definitely picky when it comes to hiring U.S. attorneys, but when it comes to effective human beings to manage the money and the day-to-day dealings of an increasingly politicized bureaucracy, they're pretty lax. In the same Post article, journalist Dan Eggen found that the FBI uses outside telecommunication companies to administer everyone's favorite wiretaps and then forgets to pay them for their services. I don't think these companies want to invade our civil liberties out of sheer goodness; without the cash, they can't justify why they participate at all.
According to a recent FBI audit, over half of the 1,000 telecommunications companies with FBI contacts are not paid on time. One such company was out $66,000 because of the bureau's poor financial management. Some of the FBI's clandestine surveillance missions have been cut off before their completion because of tardy payments, and that means the FBI is not getting its evidence from these telecom companies, either. Taxpayers are shelling out precious money from their paychecks for government activities they don't approve of, and even then, nothing comes from the practices.
Here's my favorite part: The money isn't going to the people actually doing the work, but it may be going into the pockets of the FBI agents. According to Eggen and The Post, the special funds set aside to pay these phone companies and other participants in undercover investigations are not necessarily going to their intended destinations. In 2006, one of the individuals responsible for writing the checks pleaded guilty to stealing over $25,000 meant for phone services. I don't think this is what the department meant by "special funds."
Oh, and it gets better - Fine's financial report from 2002 mentions that hundreds of laptops and guns are also missing. So that means that people are running around with the taxpayers' money, and they are armed. Lovely.
Mismanagement has become synonymous with the Bush administration and its handling of "antiterrorist activities," and this adds some great icing to the cake. The government can't even remember to fork over the cash Congress keeps handing out in the name of "protection."
And now that I know about the FBI's bum rap when it comes to paying the bills, I find it even worse that President Bush is trying to pass through Congress legislation that gives immunity from lawsuits to the telecommunication companies that aid the FBI. So what if the program has poor management? We definitely should make it easier and easier for these wiretaps to continue.
Granted, if the phone companies are not getting their money, maybe they shouldn't get the second slap across the face when someone sues them for listening in on a private cell phone conversation. Although, why should we expect the government to pay for its actions? I keep losing track - how big is the national debt now, anyway?
Lisa F. Petak is a senior in the School of Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences and a liberal columnist for The Eagle.
