US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | July 15 2002 | Ritt Goldstein

[eshu]

See also What Is Operation TIPS?

[Fixit]

Operation TIPS propaganda site link:

http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html

[Fixit]

T.I.P.S.

=

To

Insure a

Police

State

[sinkspur]

Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He has lived in Sweden since 1997, seeking political asylum there, saying he was the victim of life-threatening assaults in retaliation for his accountability efforts.

It makes perfect sense that a paranoid would write a paranoid article.

[eshu]

[Shermy]

Ritt is a loony. See my post from a previous thread on the same story.

Post #102

Leave it to the SMH to give this nut a forum. But so many are willing to believe his spin.

Come to think of it, he's probably got a good gig going on in Sweden.

[bloggerjohn]

So you're making an ad hominen attack on the messenger but how do you explain the government site which verifies that very thing?

http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html

Reading just this site, raw, without worrying who did the initial story, is alarming.

If you aren't alarmed you aren't thinking.

I don't want some $#@ deciding I'm a terrorist because I say something nasty about a politician. I don't want a neighbor with an axe to grind to use a secret phone call to the government to get me. Open your eyes.

[ken5050]

Will the Admin Moderators on FR serve?

[NoLongerLurker]

The TIPS program is REAL. It will be no different than the old Communist practice of having internal spies in every neighborhood.

The 400 intricate pages of the patriot act were not written in the few days after 911 before it was passed and became law. It was sitting on someone's desk waiting for the appropriate shock that would let it be passed.

Who said (paraphrased), "This country would be a lot easier to govern if it was a dictatorship. As long as I was the dictator"? Huey Long? Nope.

It was President George W. Bush.

[TheBattman]

Who said (paraphrased), "This country would be a lot easier to govern if it was a dictatorship. As long as I was the dictator"? Huey Long? Nope. It was President George W. Bush.

Where exactly did you get that??

[riri]

Never heard anything even close to that...though I could easily see Clintoon saying it..

[Stefan Stackhouse]

No, this program doesn't really worry me. On the other hand, if the gov't recruits another bunch of spies to spy on these spies, now THAT really WILL worry me!

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Where exactly did you get that??

Bush said it. Heard it with my own ears. Although it was said very much in jest.

(Still there is that "truth in jest" thing.)

[Shermy]

The TIPS program is REAL. It will be no different than the old Communist practice of having internal spies in every neighborhood.

Yeah, I know it's "real." So what? I read it. Sounds like a centralized 911 telephone system. Or calling up America's Most Wanted. Nothing I read about it scares me at all.

Seems to be a peeling away of levels of bureaucracy and training people to recognize potential terrorism. But so many want to believe it something else because a lunatic gave such an opinion about it.

And yes, I do know oppression can come in different guises. I don't see it here. The greatest recent invasion of rights came with the Bush/Demo/Repub rules on effectively abolishing medical and financial privacy, if the person who wants the info is a large corporation.

[eshu]

"It is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

- Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarschall, Nuremberg Trials

[WyldKard]

Babylon 5 Fans: I wonder if we get to wear a nifty black armband and collect 50 extra credits a week.

Wake up people..this has been in the hopper forever, just waiting for a time like this to exploit. The Republocratic party is setting up the tools to turn this country into a dictatorship. You may not be afraid of John Ashcroft and Bush having the power, but sooner or later a Democrat WILL get into office, and be more than happy to abuse these powers...

[DoughtyOne]

Looks like Katerina Vit picked the right nation to move to. She's gonna feel right at home in the new Amerika. This is amazing stuff.