Yay Competence!

Phone companies drop FBI wiretaps due to unpaid bills. That's our national security apparatus at work!

And let's also hear it for the phone companies: they'll work with the federal government on spying programs of dubious legality without batting an eyelash, but deprive them of their thirty pieces of silver, and they're out the door faster than you can say "retroactive immunity."

Note: I have no idea whether the wiretaps at issue here overlap with the one's which are the subject of controversy. It's entirely possible all the wiretaps in question are perfectly warranted and legal.