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U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
The New York Times ^ | 3 Jul 2013 | RON NIXON

Posted on 07/03/2013 11:34:28 AM PDT by mandaladon

WASHINGTON — Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: A handwritten card, apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the letters and packages sent to his home. “Show all mail to supv” — supervisor — “for copying prior to going out on the street,” read the card. It included Mr. Pickering’s name, address and the type of mail that needed to be monitored. The word “confidential” was highlighted in green.

“It was a bit of a shock to see it,” said Mr. Pickering, who owns a small bookstore in Buffalo. More than a decade ago, he was a spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group labeled eco-terrorists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Postal officials subsequently confirmed they were indeed tracking Mr. Pickering’s mail but told him nothing else.

As the world focuses on the high-tech spying of the National Security Agency, the misplaced card offers a rare glimpse inside the seemingly low-tech but prevalent snooping of the United States Postal Service.

Mr. Pickering was targeted by a longtime surveillance system called mail covers, but that is only a forerunner of a vastly more expansive effort, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: echelon; nsa; projectechelon; snooping
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Together, the two programs show that snail mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny that the National Security Agency has given to telephone calls and e-mail....................and we wonder why the Post Office is broke?
1 posted on 07/03/2013 11:34:28 AM PDT by mandaladon
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To: mandaladon

Not to mention that little room in the basement where demoted NSA hacks steam them open.


2 posted on 07/03/2013 11:37:18 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: mandaladon

ELF is a terrorist group. If he is/was a member I HOPE someone’s watching him.


3 posted on 07/03/2013 11:37:45 AM PDT by DManA
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Last Holiday season DHS was opening packages and taping them shut, except a few they left open.

From the article:
“Basically they are doing the same thing as the other programs, collecting the information on the outside of your mail, the metadata, if you will, of names, addresses, return addresses and postmark locations, which gives the government a pretty good map of your contacts, even if they aren’t reading the contents,” he said.


4 posted on 07/03/2013 11:41:01 AM PDT by Whenifhow
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To: mandaladon

I haven’t put a return address on an envelope since I found out about “closed cover” monitoring in the 1970’s.

Can’t find a reference with a quick search, but IIRC the Nixon administration was having the post office record return addresses on letters directed to certain recipients.

Never give a government access to ANY information you wouldn’t give to your bitterest enemy.


5 posted on 07/03/2013 11:41:46 AM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of oppression, and the democrats gleefully use them!)
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To: null and void

Possible NJCT ping.


6 posted on 07/03/2013 11:43:32 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: null and void

bttt


7 posted on 07/03/2013 11:45:57 AM PDT by txhurl (RNC 'voter suppression': attempting to limit each voter to ONE vote!)
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To: DManA
ELF is a terrorist group.

No doubt.

If he is/was a member I HOPE someone’s watching him.

Without a warrant? Or do you care about the Fourth Amendment?

8 posted on 07/03/2013 11:46:22 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to be managed by central planning.)
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To: mandaladon

Shocking.


9 posted on 07/03/2013 11:47:19 AM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: null and void
I haven’t put a return address on an envelope since I found out about “closed cover” monitoring in the 1970’s.

If it is tax deductible, yes. Otherwise, no. If anything, put the address you are sending the mail to in the return spot, in case the handling equipment shucks the stamps off (has happened to me numerous times).

10 posted on 07/03/2013 11:47:47 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: mandaladon

And why we don’t trust the USPS. Not only are they lazy incompetent rude buffoons, they are also spies.


11 posted on 07/03/2013 11:48:11 AM PDT by Hulka
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To: Carry_Okie

Who said there is no warrant?


12 posted on 07/03/2013 11:50:07 AM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: DManA

>>ELF is a terrorist group. If he is/was a member I HOPE someone’s watching him.

So you are in favor of the government spying on citizens without warrants unless its against you?


13 posted on 07/03/2013 11:51:29 AM PDT by qwerty1234
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To: mandaladon

In the old days of Russia there used to be so many people listening to phone calls that the actual people talking had trouble hearing each other.

Sounds like were in a similar position, just with better technology.


14 posted on 07/03/2013 11:51:39 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: mylife; Carry_Okie

One of the requirements for a warrant is it needs to be present to the person who is being searched.

Yes you can have secret warrants but eventually they are required to tell you.


15 posted on 07/03/2013 11:52:47 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: mylife

>>Who said there is no warrant?

Who said there was?


16 posted on 07/03/2013 11:52:51 AM PDT by qwerty1234
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To: qwerty1234

My point is the poster assumes there was not.
Elf is a known terrorist group.

This was not Mr Kangaroo.


17 posted on 07/03/2013 11:54:17 AM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: qwerty1234

I have nothing against the government spying on known terrorists. That’s their job.

It is not their job to spy on every single American indiscriminately.


18 posted on 07/03/2013 11:55:26 AM PDT by DManA
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To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


19 posted on 07/03/2013 11:55:48 AM PDT by Nachum (The Obama "List" at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: mandaladon
All USA mail was being scanned for Zip+4 codes since at least 2002.

Most “pre-sort” mail - like monthly bills and advertisements - is handled by sub-contractors, so it might not be digitally archived.

But most personal mail is coded by the USPS, and scanned on both sides, either by computer or by a remote CRT operator.

I know that gets archived for system analysis, but I don't know for how long.

20 posted on 07/03/2013 11:57:11 AM PDT by zeestephen
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