No e-mail for G-men

Monetary constraints have prevented the FBI from handing out a new technology to some of its agents: e-mail accounts.

"As ridiculous as this might sound, we have real money issues right now, and the government is reluctant to give all agents and analysts dot-gov accounts," Mark Mershon, assistant director in charge of the agency's New York City office, told The Daily News.

It will take until at least the end of the year before the 2,000 agents in the New York area all get .gov accounts, the paper said.

Blog community response:

"Welcome to 1995, FBI!"
--Chad's Blog

"Any network admin could set up a server with 2,000 secure email accounts over a weekend for the cost of a couple of pizzas, a case of beer, and 20 hours of overtime for a couple of geeks to help out. Is Uncle Sam really that broke? Heck there are companies out there that would provide this infrastructure free just to be able to advertise themselves as 'The Official Email Provider Of The F.B.I.'!"
--Databurn

"Despite what Senator Schumer says, not having email is not actually evidence of a pre-9/11 mentality. It's like a pre-the-last-15-years mentality. But we guess you probably couldn't afford like a Prodigy account or whatever back then."
--Wonkette