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.
/Also known as 'Bolovarian Circles' in Venezuela. Soon everyone will have their own little gestapo informant to check in with.
sorry. Our dog was hit by a car. My mind is sad today.
Bet they don't have to register with the government in order to do it.. /utter disgust
Well, mine is too now. Sorry about your dog.
What you are doing is a closer analogy to the border patrol, protecting your neighborhood from criminals. From crime so to speak. The chances of abusing this system are small. If you call the police on your neighbor because you suspect he is dealing drugs but the police find no drugs you lose your credibility.
However if you call the police because you suspect he is going to commit a terrorist act, how will the police know your motives. He might be an actual terrorist or it might be that he doesn't mow his yard often enough for your liking?
This is called guilt by accusation. Since he did not commit a crime but is only suspected he has no way of defending himself. How does one prove a negative?
Now imagine that your neighbor has called the FBI on you instead of the other way around. How would you feel being treated as a terrorist, having to take lie detector tests etc.
Remember, due to the PC police, anyone can be a terrorist, not just muslim men. You would be interrogated just as thoroughly as they.
The potential for abuse of this system is very large, while the benifits are small. Instead of having 300 million on the lookout for terrorists, the number is cut to 4% of that.
The danger is that if an registared informant reports suspicious behavior the authorities will tend to believe whatever the allegations are, as opposed to an ordinary citizen who hasn't been vetted by the government. The potential for abuse is great.
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