FBI wiretap disconncted due to unpaid phone bill

The Bush, Jr administration has long argued that surveillance of potential terrorists (such as yours truly, no doubt) is so important that the government should not need to seek a court order before tapping suspect phone lines. Given the level of importance here, I was more than a little amused and bemused to learn that the success of these highly important wiretaps is threatened not only by the ACLU and the Supreme Court, but by the poor accounting practices. It appears that a wiretap includes the establishment of a new phone line, presumably running from the tapped line to J. Edgar Hoover's desk, and somehow the FBI had overlooked paying the bill for some of those lines for long enough that they were disconnected for nonpayment.

I suppose that I'm relieved, both because the government isn't getting a free ride and because someone has stood up to Bush, Jr and won. Perhaps Verizon can get us out of Iraq, too.

For those who are at work and can't listen to the NPR segment, here's the story from a few other agencies: ABC, Reuters, MSNBC, BBC,