Urge Your Senators

[ColdBlooded]

In the last several days, a national firestorm has started to build around a program proposed by President Bush to recruit one million volunteers to act as spies and informants against their neighbors. Under the proposed program -- which the President is calling Operation TIPS -- the government would recruit letter carriers, utility workers, cable installers, and others whose jobs allow them access to private residences to report "suspicious activities."

But the plan has run into trouble in Congress. The House is moving to reject the President's program. It is not clear what the Senate will do, but it is likely to vote on the bill in the coming days. The fate of this deeply misguided program could very well rest with the Senate.

Take Action! Your Senators will play a key role in deciding whether or not Operation TIPS will go ahead. You can read more and send a FREE FAX to your Senators, urging them to reject this misguided program, from our action alert at:

http://www.aclu.org/action/tips107.html

^^^ it's easy (and free ) all you have to do is put in your zip code and you can fax your senators about this.

 

[ColdBlooded]

US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies

US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies
By Ritt Goldstein
July 15 2002
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002...6185141232.html

The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.

The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity".

Civil liberties groups have already warned that, with the passage earlier this year of the Patriot Act, there is potential for abusive, large-scale investigations of US citizens.

As with the Patriot Act, TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called war against terrorism. It is a Department of Justice project.

Highlighting the scope of the surveillance network, TIPS volunteers are being recruited primarily from among those whose work provides access to homes, businesses or transport systems. Letter carriers, utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors are among those named as targeted recruits.

A pilot program, described on the government Web site www.citizencorps.gov, is scheduled to start next month in 10 cities, with 1 million informants participating in the first stage. Assuming the program is initiated in the 10 largest US cities, that will be 1 million informants for a total population of almost 24 million, or one in 24 people.

Historically, informant systems have been the tools of non-democratic states. According to a 1992 report by Harvard University's Project on Justice, the accuracy of informant reports is problematic, with some informants having embellished the truth, and others suspected of having fabricated their reports.

Present Justice Department procedures mean that informant reports will enter databases for future reference and/or action. The information will then be broadly available within the department, related agencies and local police forces. The targeted individual will remain unaware of the existence of the report and of its contents.

The Patriot Act already provides for a person's home to be searched without that person being informed that a search was ever performed, or of any surveillance devices that were implanted.

At state and local levels the TIPS program will be co-ordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was given sweeping new powers, including internment, as part of the Reagan Administration's national security initiatives. Many key figures of the Reagan era are part of the Bush Administration.

The creation of a US "shadow government", operating in secret, was another Reagan national security initiative.

 

[Tenkamenin]

It appears that some of our important rights will be stripped away. I wouldn't be shocked in a few years if our "Right to privacy" will be gone. What I fear is a strong police state coming in..

 

[GANGSTAEIGHT]

... to fuk themselves

 

[|GOD|||ZILLA|]

^^^HAHAHA

If a post is too long I usually just scroll to find the main points in a reply. I found it.

:dead: