US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies

smh ^ | 7/15/2002 | Ritt Goldstein

[Lazamataz]

I'm sure Israeli citizens never report suspicious behavior.

I'm also quite sure that they are not an organized Corps of snitches and busibodies.

[mrsmith]

What's funny IMHO is that they have set up an 11 digit hot line number- for people who are too stupid to dial '911'!

Oh well, maybe 911 is overused.

[APBaer]

"I'm also quite sure that they are not an organized Corps of snitches and busibodies."

"I’m so ferklempt. Talk among yourselves."

[A. Morgan]

Reading this post from TLBSHOW and the replies, reminds me of the way a lot of folks acted in the Civil War. Perhaps, these are only responses to fear.

If only we had Freeped the terrorists before they boarded the planes, then none of this would have happened.. not one plane would have hit the towers....no Enron, no Worldcon... our 401Ks, our stocks and our SUVs would all be safe. Who knows, maybe the price of smokes would be rolled back to $15.00 a carton.

[Asclepius]

The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity".

I wonder why we can't just all live in labor camps?

[concerned about politics]

Gee, that's comforting.
I'm beginning to wonder about this war on terrorism. Who's the enemy, anyway? Us, or the Muslims? I'm beginning to think it's American citizens, otherwise, they'd do something about immigration first. The doors are wide open and the "welcome terrorists" matts are all laid out!!

[neutrino]

Interesting. But how will they manage the flow of information? One in 24 implies about 12,000,000 informants. If each one generates one tip per year, that's 12,000,000 reports to follow up on...the manpower requirements are such that it would be very difficult to take more than a cursory look at the target.

And it gets worse. How does one do a background check on so many people? Or is this something where one fills out a web page and gets a free snitch certificate by e-mail...suitable for printing on any inkjet printer?

There are issues with this, but implementation seems a very big challenge.

[APBaer]

"I wonder why we can't just all live in labor camps?"

No, we have to go to work, so we can by our taxes support our political masters.

[Dog]

where one fills out a web page and gets a free snitch certificate by e-mail...suitable for printing on any inkjet printer?

Snicker!

[ellery]

Civilians are already reporting suspicious activities -- and that's good. But once you set up a formal infrastructure, it can much more easily be abused. Would you be so unconcerned about this if Clinton were president? Because there will be another one like him someday -- and I for one quiver at the thought of this being at his disposal...

[Mulder]

Some of these posts are just unbelievable. They'd be funny if they weren't so sad. I'm sure Israeli citizens never report suspicious behavior. /utter disgust

Any organized informant program is pretty much useless until the government has the political will to secure our borders and deport those who illegally.

This program is about pushing us closer to a police state, and providing political cover for the politicans to make it seem like they are doing something about "terrorism".

[TLBSHOW]

OH LORD,

Tell me there will never be another Democrat President. !

[DainBramage]

This is just an expansion of the patriot act. The Feds can raid your home/business, pull you over or surveil you and only with claim of "receiving information through our TIPS program".

I'm joining the Young Republicans just to be safe. Is there an age limit?

[Shooter 2.5]

I thought that's why we had Homeowners Associations?

[Mulder]

The Feds can raid your home/business, pull you over or surveil you and only with claim of "receiving information through our TIPS program".

Once we go to a cashless society, they'll just shut off your ability to buy or sell if someone reports you under this program.

[folklore]

Sen Byrd juat announced that he will not rest untill all of these jobs are in WV.

[chudogg]

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

Ahhhh, no good leftist rag would be complete without a nice cheap shot a Ronald Reagon at the end of it.

[concerned about politics]

I'm reeeeealy starting to wonder about this "war on terror."
Really. I think freedom in the US is becomming the new enemy.
The Bush administration is getting pretty scary.
There has been no terrorism since almost two years ago!!!

[hellinahandcart]

There has been no terrorism since almost two years ago!!!

Are you posting from the future or something?

[dawn53]

I'm also quite sure that they are not an organized Corps of snitches and busibodies

I belong to an organized corps of snitches and busybodies. It's called Neighborhood Watch.

We snitches take turns, each giving three hours per week to drive around our neighborhood and report suspicious activity.

We have the most active Neighborhood Watch in our city, and we also have the lowest crime rate of any neighborhood in our city.

Sometimes snitches and busybodies have their place.