Gosh golly gee whiz. Here I am, a bare six months into this blog and already I’ve succumbed to leading with a sensationalistic and inaccurate headline. My bad. So here’s the clarification. “Counterintelligence woman” (explanation here) wasn’t actually, literally caught on tape. But a story about her and the problems she caused certainly was caught on tape (unless, of course, KATU has gone completely digital, in which case it was caught in a way that has no readily comprehensible explanation), and now is available below.

This was a fine piece of reporting by KATU’s Thom Jensen last summer, and I’m grateful for the way it succinctly presents the kind of bureaucratic insanity I’ve been highlighting here. Anyone who’s ever been caught in such interminably grinding cogs will recognize the Bureaucratic Anthem: “That’s How It Works.” That is what firefighters were told when a bureaucratic snafu by Counterintelligence Woman in the Boise office of the U.S. Forest Service deprived them of thousands of dollars in pay.

But here is something that works in a very different and far better way: bringing light to bear on bureaucratic abuses. After discovering the video I contacted KATU for an update, and Tracey Lam reported back that the firefighters have now all been paid.

Here’s the clip:

Peace.
Deborah Alicen