Homeland Security or KGB??

WorldNetDaily ^ | July 17, 2002 | Joseph Farah

[ninenot]

U.S. government doesn't trust Americans

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 17, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

We're supposed to have a government of the people, for the people and by the people.

In fact, Americans are largely supposed to govern themselves in the system devised by our brilliant founders.

That is no longer the case because the U.S. government in Washington doesn't trust its citizens.

This sad truth has become crystal clear in the wake of the terror attacks of Sept. 11. Instead of enlisting Americans to fight this evil as past governments have in times of war, this administration, with at least the tacit approval of Congress, has used the attacks as an excuse to clamp down on the civil liberties of Americans and to keep closer tabs on law-abiding citizens. At the same time, the government has demonstrated, time and time again, its own startling inability to use its vast resources to prevent massive attacks on the people and even to recognize and identify from where the threats emanate.

The latest example of the government's alarming plans to target the entire population for more scrutiny is the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS. Interestingly, the program came to light not through the reporting of any U.S. press outlets, but through a report in the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia and linked by WorldNetDaily.

Under plans outlined on the government's Citizen Corps website, a pilot program launching next month will enlist some 1 million domestic informants in 10 cities to spy on the people. That could mean, if the plan is carried out nationwide, there will be a government snoop for every 24 Americans.

What that means, the Sydney Morning Herald points out, is that the U.S. would have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the dreaded Stasi secret police. At least 4 percent of Americans would participate in TIPS, under the government's plan.

The TIPS snoops will be recruited by the Department of Justice from among citizens whose work provides access to homes, businesses and transport systems – such as letter carriers, utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors.

The informants' reports will enter databases for future reference and possible action within the Justice Department, related agencies and local police forces. Of course, the targets of such spying will have no knowledge of the dossiers being maintained on them.

All this, of course, also comes in the context of other ominous legislation such as the Patriot Act, which permits a person's home to be searched without his or her knowledge. Bugs can be planted, papers can be seized – all prima facie violations of the Fourth Amendment.

Is this America?

What's going on here?

The government hardly has a sterling track record with its paid employees. What makes it think it will get good information from a network of voluntary informants? What's to prevent these people from acting out on grudges with neighbors? How can the information, to be widely shared within government circles and agencies, be verified and ascertained to be legitimate?

These are just some of the questions raised by this dangerous trend toward government non-accountability.

Government plans demonstrate we are clearly moving to an us-against-them mentality. These plans are not designed to protect the citizens of the United States, they are designed to protect government from the people.

Besides making all of us more fearful of our own government, this plan will have the added effect of making us all suspicious of those around us – our mailman, our meter reader, even the friendly train conductor. That's what happened in East Germany and in other totalitarian countries that instituted such draconian plans.

No matter how friendly a face the government attempts to put on this program, it is not going to fly in the USA. Let the word go out now to one and all who might be tempted to participate in such a program – we don't like domestic spies in the United States. We don't like rats. We don't like snitches. We don't like snoops. We don't like them and we don't need them – not here. Not in America. Not now. Not ever.

[ellery]

Not to mention the fact that these are people officially deputized by the government who do not have to follow Constitutional guidelines on search and seizure. Who needs a search warrant when you can get some schlub to search the house for you?

[BJClinton]

Okay, got the URL right. http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html

[zoyd]

You are NOT listening. The ability to make bogus reports and to target white male conservatives are already in place! All ya gotta do is pick up the damned phone.

So, if that's the case, why do we need TIPS? If TIPS is redundant, why have it?

The fact that the government is going to go out of its way, spending millions and millions of dollars, to 'accomplish' what you say is already happening... it doesn't add up. What adds up is a new governmental department, a new budget item that will never be eliminated, specifically designed to cull tips from Americans about subjectively suspicious activities of other fellow Americans. And does anyone here honestly believe that the TIPS mission will never be expanded, enlarged, or given new powers in a few months/a year/a couple years from now?

For anyone who likes a slippery slope, TIPS certainly starts the ball rolling down that slope.

[BJClinton]

This is the extent of all information that we have. I'm going to apply and see what the whole process is about.

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.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Government plans demonstrate we are clearly moving to an us-against-them mentality. These plans are not designed to protect the citizens of the United States, they are designed to protect government from the people.

Bumping a good thread.

[ellery]

I see you're also fond of changing the subject...

[Texasforever]

You are right. All is lost. Report to the showers.

[Tasha]

I talked to ten people. Not one of them approved of any kind of informers. Then I was curious and I asked a police officer what he thought about it. He told me that the people who are doing it are idiots. The United States law already says that citizens should inform the police of any criminal activity, no matter where it is happening. If they do not inform, it is punishable by law.
That way he doesn't understand what this is all about. It is the duty of United States citizens to inform the police about any criminal activity.

[zoyd]

I'm sorry that the codification of a 'national reporting center' for citizens to report on their fellow citizens doesn't raise your blood pressure.

I don't think anyone has suggested 'the showers' are next, but neither do we have to be slapping the backs of those who'd chip away at our privacy.

[agrandis]

You're right - we are already at this point. A neighbor can have your children taken from you if he sees you spank one of them. But doesn't that p*** you off? Are you not concerned that the government is using 9/11 as an excuse to balloon this problem in America? The fact that there are so many people in today's America that can even THINK of implementing and participating in something like this is alarming.

Meanwhile, the real causes of 9/11 (corruption in government, corruption in the population, and multiculturalism) are all exassperated by every action and word of our "leaders."

[Texasforever]

Look. If I had access to the archives I could bring up thread after thread of people complaining that the administration was not asking for citizen involvement. The gist being that the "gubiment" says we are at "war" but they want everyone to go back to normal. Then when the "gubimint" decides to ask for that involvement many of the same folks do a complete u-turn and cry police state. I hate hypocrites.

[Merdoug]

This is 1984. This is Nazism. Watching for terrorists should be the job of all Citizens, but this will just turn Americans against Americans, in my opinion.

[Texasforever]

Then all citizens are invited. Damn.

[browardchad]

I went to the website and it pulled up nothing. Is there any real info other than the hysteria?

Try the sidebar on the left of the page. There's a link to "Operation TIPS."

There's also an article posted later than this, about Justice downplaying the program: Administration mum on snooping program

It has obviously become a hot potato.

[zoyd]

Look. If I had access to the archives I could bring up thread after thread of people complaining that the administration was not asking for citizen involvement. The gist being that the "gubiment" says we are at "war" but they want everyone to go back to normal. Then when the "gubimint" decides to ask for that involvement many of the same folks do a complete u-turn and cry police state. I hate hypocrites.

That's kind of off-topic reasoning, isn't it? Besides, I've never suggested that there isn't enough citizen involvement. I wasn't a big fan of the Citizen Corps idea to begin with. But it's just this privacy-ignorant behemoth sitting there, and people who claim to want a more limited government are all happy about Citizen Corps.

My big problem is that it's no longer good enough to embrace the ideals of America in order to be considered patriotic. Now, in the government-is-king mindset we have, you're not patriotic unless you're spying for the government. You're not 'doing what you should be doing as an American' unless you're complicit in some government-paid 'volunteerism', and that's a very twisted concept of what it's all about to be a good citizen. That's not what we're supposed to be about.

[BJClinton]

From what I've been researching, it seems to be just a better organized information gathering/sharing network. I signed up for the e-newsletter. I'll post it here if it's interesting.

[F16Fighter]

Here, Here!

[BJClinton]

Thanks. I mis-typed the URL the first time.

[droberts]

Which is exactly what the Stasi informants were set up to do.

[Tasha]

Yes. Information gathering. But isn't that what every good cop is doing every day? Don't they have their own sources? If anyone needs any information, it is easy to ask the police officers in the district. Now we're saying that cops aren't gathering information good enough? I don't know but this whole concept about information gathering is really a little too over the top. Citizens have to inform the police about crimes, if not they become guilty of it, by association. There is a law on the books. Isn't that enough? Or are we just trying to build up an army of snitches who will be snitching on everybody, and from the land of the brave and free, we will become the land of the snitch and the afraid.
I think the concept of gathering information had best be left to the police departments.