US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies

smh ^ | 7/15/2002 | Ritt Goldstein

[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.

[Henrietta]

Letter carriers, utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors are among those named as targeted recruits.

Lovely. And almost all government employees. Why does this not surprise me? Start getting your mail somewhere else besides your house, folks. Never know who might be watching.

[Henrietta]

ping

[TLBSHOW]

Thanks for the alert!

[Henrietta]

I'm sorry to hear about your dog...it's like losing a member of the family.

[tpaine]

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

---

'Verklempt', according to Askel.

Great [unkempt] minds work alike.

[Timesink]

Every participant in this new program will be given an Operation TIPS information sticker to be affixed to the cab of their vehicle or placed in some other public location so that the toll-free reporting number is readily available.

OH MY GOD!!!! STICKERS!!!!! Truly, the Fourth Reich is at hand!!!

[monday]

"It's just if you want to oficially belong to TIPS that you have to register"

Wait a minute, if you don't have to register with TIPS to report suspicious activity then whats the point? Do you get a shiney gold badge to show to your friends, a certificate? What?

My worry is if this is really about fighting terrorism then its all for show. Creating another ineffectual program to deal with problems is what the Democrats excel at.

If the gov't really wanted to fight terrorism they would be recruiting Muslims to go undercover in mosques. This TIPS program is silly at best, and potentially dangerous at worst.

[Timesink]

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

I would be extremely surprised if less than 4% of Americans haven't already been regularly calling everyone from the FBI to local animal control officers since 9/11 to report every swarthy-looking gentleman that comes within 5 miles of their house, as well as everytime someone leaves their lights on in the parking lot at Wal-Mart.

[dr_who]

Hopefully, it's the people who work at the @@#^%@ water plant.

[Timesink]

Can snappy brown shirts and highly-polished black boots be far behind?

When they start hauling in DUers for "questioning," then I'll worry. Until then, it's just a glorified "call us if you see something funny" program, a barely-more-formalized version of what they've been asking all Americans to do for the last ten months anyway. Give 'em stickers and make "officially part of the program," and they'll pay more attention to suspicious activity. Advertising 101.

[Draco]

Which "US Government website?" There are thousands. I would like to see just how closely Drudge's "source" tracks whatever is posted on this alleged website. Such a proposal would require Congressional authorization and funding. I recall no such legislation. The Patriot Act did call for increased surveillance, but not on the level of employing millions of Americans. I would appreciate your pinpointing the source. Otherwise, I won't be turning myself in to anybody. : )

[dr_who]

Communist countries typically employ neighborhood snoops to tattle on anyone who does something that's against the party line.

[Timesink]

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

Unfortunately, a lot of people here are buying it hook, line and sinker.

[Orion78]

"Up with your hands!" yelled a savage voice.

A handsome, tough-looking boy of nine had popped up from behind the table and was menacing him with a toy automatic pistol, while his small sister, about two years younger, mad the same gesture with a fragment of wood. Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, grey shirts and red neckerchiefs which were the uniform of the Spies. Winston raised his hands above his head, but with an uneasy feeling, so vicious was the boy's demeanor, that it was not altogether a game.

"You're a traitor!" yelled the boy. "You're a thought-criminal! You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll vaporize you, I'll send you to the salt mines!"

Suddenly they were both leaping around him, shouting "Traitor!" and "Thought-criminal!", the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gamboling of tiger clubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters. There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy's eye, a quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do so. It was a good job it was not a real pistol he was holding, Winston thought.

[dr_who]

The entire country has been on edge since last Sept, so why certain people should tapped to go around looking for thing s to "inform" law enforcement about is beyond me. We all know how reliable drug informants are.

[APBaer]

the government Web site www.citizencorps.gov

[Centurion2000]

Is this a joke ???

[Clara Lou]

From the .gov site: Operation TIPS - the Terrorism Information and Prevention System - will be a nationwide program giving millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity. [emphasis mine]
It appears to me that they are aiming this at a particular crowd, not the neighborhood folk. Neighborhood folk have the police to contact-- they don't ned TIPS. (That's how it appears to me.)

[Darth Sidious]

I apologize to everyone who, up until now, I have referred to as "Bush-bots". I'm man enough to know when I've erred and I beg forgiveness for my misunderstanding.

The correct terminology, from here on out, will be "Bush-brownshirts".

[aruanan]

The creation of a US "shadow government", operating in secret, was another Reagan national security initiative.

I thought this went back way before Reagan. Also, just think, 1 in every 24 Americans multiplied by the number of Gladys Kravitz types who will use this to cause trouble for people they don't like. How much time and effort will be spent weeding out the wheat from the absolutely huge amount of chaff? If the government's behind now on getting things translated and understood, it'll really be swamped after this program goes into effect.