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U.S. to Recruit 1 “Big Brother” out of Every 24 Citizens: Report
SYDNEY
, July 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The U.S.
administration is aiming to recruit millions of
U.S.
citizens as domestic informants, an Australian daily newspaper
reported
Monday, July 15, 2002
.
The
Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Terrorism Information and
Prevention System, or TIPS, means the
U.S.
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,” the paper added.
According
to the Herald,
U.S.
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
U.S.
citizens.
As
with the Patriot Act, TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called
war against terrorism.
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, reported the paper.
It
added that the government website www.citizencorps.gov
describes a pilot study which 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
U.S.
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,”
said the Herald. “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,” it added.
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.
TIPS
will be coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, at
state and local levels. The agency, the paper said, 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.
On
its website on June 28, Fox News reported that the
U.S.
government may soon force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to keep
copies of all e-mail exchanges for homeland security.
Technology
experts say the
U.S.
federal government may try to do that using the vast law enforcement
allowances provided under the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the report
said.
“They
drafted the Patriot Act to lower all of the thresholds for the
invasion of privacy,” said Gene Riccoboni, a New York-based Internet
lawyer who said he has found loopholes in the anti-terror legislation
that could open up a data retention provision.
Under
the Patriot Act signed into law in October, law enforcement needs as
little as an administrative subpoena to trace names, e-mail addresses,
types of Internet access individuals use, and credit card numbers used
online.
In
a letter to the European Union in October, the United States Mission,
the
U.S.
envoy to the E.U., suggested data retention for European ISPs in a
list of ways the E.U. might help the
United States
fight the war on terror, said Fox News.
Such
a law is also being discussed in the E.U. On June 9th, the British
daily newspaper, the Guardian said that the Europol, the E.U. police
and intelligence arm, proposed that telephone and internet firms
retain millions of pieces of data, including details of visits to
internet chat rooms and of calls made on mobile phones and text
messages.
The
information retained will include passwords used by individuals,
records of which website addresses are visited, as well as details of
web pages looked at and credit card and bank details used for
subscriptions online, the paper said. With regards to e-mail, complete
information will be retained, including sender, time, recipient,
content and date.
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