Posted on 07/17/2002 9:09:29 AM PDT by NoLongerLurker
Operation TIPS, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice and developed in partnership with several other federal agencies, is one of the five component programs of the Citizen Corps. Operation TIPS will be a national system for reporting suspicious, and potentially terrorist-related activity. The program will involve the millions of American workers who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to see potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public places.
The Department of Justice is discussing participation with several industry groups whose workers are ideally suited to help in the anti-terrorism effort because their routines allow them to recognize unusual events and have expressed a desire for a mechanism to report these events to authorities.
These workers will use their common sense and knowledge of their work environment to identify suspicious or unusual activity. This program offers a way for these workers to report what they see in public areas and along transportation routes.
All it will take to volunteer is a telephone or access to the Internet as tips can be reported on the toll-free hotline or online. Information received will be entered into the national database and referred electronically to a point of contact in each state as appropriate. This is not a national 911 center, and callers are expected to dial 911 for emergency local response.
Industries that are interested in participating in this program will be given printed guidance material, flyers and brochures, about the program and how to contact the Operation TIPS reporting center. This information can be distributed to workers or posted in common work areas. Operation TIPS is scheduled to be launched in late summer or early fall 2002. The goal of the program is to establish a reliable and comprehensive national system for reporting suspicious, and potentially terrorist-related, activity. By establishing one central reporting center, information from several different industries can be maintained in a single database. Operation TIPS will be phased in across the country to enable the system to build its capacity to receive an increasing volume of tips.
It's not like these guys are being covert about their intentions, regardless of what the Bush Bots say to the contrairy.
And.......if principled, freedom and liberty loving people are not part of it, then we are cutting our own throats. They will have all the clout and we will be left to whine and wallow.
You and our current Republican administration don't seem to give a rat's a$$ about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, particularly the protection against unreasonable search. Sending in an agent in the form of a furnace repair man who has the power to look around and report any activities that HE thinks are suspicious, which then goes into a record you can never access is, in my opinion, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
I agree. Decent people, in and out of TIPS, would not do those things, and decent people in the TIPS program would have something to say about those who would do such things. It would be a positive influence for a change.
The whole idea of enocuraging Americans to inform on their neighbors is thoroughly disgusting.
What would be the purpose of joining TIPS if not to rat on people? What other positions are there?
This is nothing more than a giant, federally run, nation wide organization for the purpose of rating on each other for the purpose of empowering the federal government and gaining more and more information on the 'subjects'.
Hmmmmmmmm.........I got it! Start a pre-TIPS program to screen the TIPS informers.
What recourse against the rat does one have for providing false info? Against the government for acting upon false info? Is there any?
I suspect the answer is a big fat NO on all counts.
And what about the violation of the 4th amendment issue that this surely raises? Being a part of the TIPS program clearly makes them under the direction of and an agent of the government, which requires them to obtain a warrant to enter your home.
This is a road that should not be traveled down. And no person who supports the TIPS program is a lover of liberty and freedom. Including President Bush.
That's exactly what they won't do. If only the ratters get involved, it will take on a life of its own and become the type of organization we don't want it to become.
Sorry, seems I mistook you for someone more intelligent than you are.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Other than the position of RAT, what positions are available?
We will have more informants than Germany and their infamous Stasi secret police. One in every 24 Americans will be a snitch.
It will be totally disgusting.
Here is the "intelligent" version:
If the "garbled database" will prevent TIPS from being useful, why bother? If it won't prevent information on you from being retrieved, it's a menace.
In any case, it's disgusting to encourage Americans to become informants on each other. It's no different than what took place under the Nazis or the Communists.
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