One activity the Clinton administration has consistently
performed more rigorously than any of its illustrious
predecessors is federal wiretapping. For the second year in a
row the number of authorized federal wiretaps reached a record
figure.
During 1994, 554 new wiretaps were authorized, a whopping 23
per cent increase over the 1994 figure of 450 which was a
national record in its own right at the time.
There were also 600 new state wiretaps authorized in 1994
which represented the highest figure for fifteen years.
The average wiretap costs the US taxpayer $66,783 but this
figure has been known to rise, on at least one instance we are
aware of, to $839,421 when the authorities are particularly
diligent. Predictably it is the continued and much vaunted war
against drugs that provides the rational for such costly and
intrusive activity.
The one record not broken this year was the one for criminal
convictions arising from wiretapping. Prosecutors found that
only 17 per cent of the conversations eavesdropped by Big
Brother's secret agents contained any incriminating evidence that
would stand up as such in court.
Reprinted from The Mouse Monitor, The International Journal of
Bureau-Rat Control, a periodical published by
Scope International
for its customers.
