Posted on 07/14/2002 1:17:47 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies
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.
I'm also quite sure that they are not an organized Corps of snitches and busibodies.
Oh well, maybe 911 is overused.
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.
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?
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.
Snicker!
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".
I'm joining the Young Republicans just to be safe. Is there an age limit?
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.
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.
Are you posting from the future or something?
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.
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