The Associated Press recently wrote about how much
telecom companies are making through wiretaps now of course
the federal government goes to rise in AT&T and other phone companies in order
to
obtain phone records and as a result this phone companies can actually
charged the federal government for it
so in essence the government is using our taxpayer dollars
to basically spy on us which is incredible
and we actually have real facts and figures at this point we know exactly
how much
these phone companies are charging the government someone show you those
numbers right now
AT&T charges three hundred twenty-five dollars
for an activation fee for each wiretap in ten dollars a day to maintain its
cricket and US Cellular those are smaller companies charge about two
hundred fifty dollars per wiretap
horizon actually charges the most 775 dollars for the first month
and five hundred dollars each month after that that's not surprising
briseno's charges the most
but I don't blame in this case the government says here gimme a
you know wiretap motivating what do you do
say no cost too much and not get the wiretap no
so they like we got to where we wanna he says is not their money's a taxpayer
money
they're gonna give it to us right and he says those corporations that later fun
the same government
anyway so it's a nice little circle the robbers wife
of course all the government agencies get paid eventually by the taxpayers
but here we are direct full where those agencies get the following money
straight to those
phone companies thereby giving them an extra incentive to cooperate with the
wiretap absolutely I want to give you some more numbers
I'm so these are government payouts to specific companies AT&T receive $24
million dollars between 2007 and 2011
money for rise in up between three million and $5 million a year between
to the 2007 and 2011 so they're receiving millions upon millions of
dollars each year as a result of these are
wire tops and again this is taxpayer money which is so devastating
on the average wiretap costs about fifty thousand dollars
up because of all these different activation fees and things like that
I'm includes reimbursements as well as other operational costs
I one narcotics case in New York in 2011 cost the government
2.9 million dollars alone
Jesus I now look understand in the old days when we wiretapped
people that we got warrants on and had probable cause for a specific crime
etcetera
that's great that's good police work you should wiretap them
when you go through the right circles and you can actually mother to be drug
dealer murder rapist Center
threat for great nowadays though we don't trust our government
and we know that they're spying on all of us and so who are they actually
getting one so under the Bush administration
they did warrantless wiretapping meeting and we don't care if there's probable
cause or you're guilty or innocent on a wiretap either way
of course the Bush administration just made it
claimed they just turn that legal like it was warrantless wiretapping
now that was obviously illegal now we just change the law and its legal they
did
to meet fair they didn't under bush that they change portable of
and then Obama way over interpreted that to say that I could
do you know much greater warrant at I'll
you're happy wiretapping and I just do under a general warrant a blanket war
so a lot of this money is wasted on spying on us
and as an appointed out they're doing that with their own money and the thing
is
you know some people make the argument that it's actually good that these phone
companies are charging for these wiretaps because it creates
some sort of obstacle to the wire-tapping right so
maybe the government will think twice before wiretapping us
specific person if it's gonna cost them a lot of money but the reality is
doesn't give a crap about how much money they spend on the wire tapping the way
so much money as it is
so is it a little bit of an optical sure is it another
to deter them from doing what they're doing how now yeah no way
I mean come on I'm Verizon Verizon alone I'm sorry to interrupt you but
Verizon receives a quarter-million wiretap requests
each year even 250,000 right
so did stop the government from
spending when the defense contractors overcharge us by billions of dollars
08 in Iraq they did but they do all the time it said are all through the giant
bureaucracy
no of course it didn't stop them because you know they're gonna work for those
guys
afterwards so no it's not their money Lebowski
it's your money they're perfectly happy to spend it wiretapping you