This just in from Bloomberg:
Phone companies disconnected some of the FBI's eavesdropping operations because the government failed to pay bills on time, a Justice Department audit found.
Read the full story here.
What does this say to you about telecom amnesty?
To me it says HELL NO. I can think of a hundred reasons why we should not have telecom immunity for illegal wiretapping (perhaps reason number one is that IT'S ILLEGAL), but to me, this news should completely and finally settle the issue.
If there was any sort of reasonable argument that we should excuse the telecoms for agreeing to spy on us without warrants, it was probably the argument the Administration made, that they acted in "good faith," and acted within their patriotic duties. I know, that's ludicrous; but go with me here for a minute.
If this was truly an example of "good faith" by the telecom companies, I rather think they would not really be doing it for the money; they'd be doing it because it was the right thing to do. Yet, here we see that for a paltry $66,000, a telecom company cut off the FBI (I know $66,000 isn't "paltry" to me either, but we are talking in terms of telecom dollars here, not real people dollars).
Is that the price of telecom patriotism and good faith? If it is, then I think they have simply demonstrated they have none. Call your Senators and tell them this is the last straw.
Update: A comment made the point that this is FBI wiretapping, and that we may only be talking about immunity for NSA wiretapping in the extension of the Patriot Act. But to me, that somewhat misses the point. It's the same telecom companies doing the tapping, and if these were legal wiretaps that got cut off, it only further undermines the companies' argument that they acted in good faith. It's the money.