[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:8403] SPY ON EVERYONE

[Al Kagan]

This is one of the scariest messages I have seen.

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>From: kmccook at tampabay.rr.com
>To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
>Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:35:27 -0400
>Subject: [SRRTAC-L:8403] SPY ON EVERYONE
>Priority: normal
>X-MailScanner: Found to be clean, Found to be clean
>Reply-To: srrtac-l at ala.org
>Sender: owner-srrtac-l at ala.org
>Status:  
>
>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. Operation TIPS, a project of the U.S. 
>Department
>of Justice, will begin as a pilot program in 10 cities that will be selected.
>http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html
>
>US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans
>as Citizen Spies
>by Ritt Goldstein
>July 15, 2002 in the Sydney Morning Herald
>
>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.

-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu