Security Bill Loses ID Card, TIPS

July 24, 2002 Issue

By Julie Madsen

Article Tools

E-mail

Comments

RSS

H ouse Majority Leader Dick Armey last week marked up legislation to reject the proposed Terrorism Information and Prevention System (Operation TIPS), a security program that would recruit U.S. civilians as informants of "suspicious activity" in an effort to thwart terrorism, reports Ellen Sorokin in the Washington Times. The program, which was to begin in 10 cities next month and include more than a million participants--including postal carriers and other workers with access to homes--had received criticism as a violation of civil liberties.

The TIPS program was created in part by the Justice Department and loosely based on the Neighborhood Watch program, which organizes residents to monitor neighborhoods and report crime. According to a July 15th report in the Sydney Morning Herald, "Current 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."

While Attorney General John Ashcroft's spokeswoman, Barbara Comstock, said the program was not intended to turn Americans into spies or to permit entrance into homes, civil rights groups argued that TIPS would make "government-sanctioned peeping Toms" out of citizens. Some had compared the program to the Stasi secret police of East Germany.

Armey's press secretary, Richard Diamond, said that "Mr. Armey believes there are other and better ways to involve citizens in the protection of the homeland."
--Julie Madsen
Go there>>

RELATED:
US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies
by Ritt Goldstein, The Sydney Morning Herald
Citizen-spy plan facing opposition in public, House
by Andy Newman, Seattle Times (NYT wire)
Operation TIPS(Official Web site)
AmeriSnitch
by Bill Berkowitz, Guerrilla News Network

Comments

Add Your Comment

You can use this comment form to enter your personal experiences or additional information and resources that you'd like to share with Utne Reader readers. Your helpful advice will be posted on this page. E-mail addresses are never displayed on comments, but they are required to confirm your comments.

Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.

New to Utne Reader?
Sign up to share comments.

Asterisks(*) indicate required fields.

Name*

Your name appears next to your comment.

E-mail Address*

This will be your login ID.

City	State	Zip Code

Password*

Confirm Password*

Have you signed up before?
Please log in before you enter your comment.

E-mail Address

Password

Forgot your password?

Comments

(Offensive materials and/or spam will be removed, no HTML allowed)

Please Note: Your sign-up must be verified via e-mail before your comment is published.

READ

E-MAILED

Security Bill Loses ID Card, TIPS

RELATED ARTICLES

Showing Their Cards

An Unhealthy Compromise

Walk Like the Buddha

Censoring Our Educators

Memo: U.S. Spy Agency Bugging Phones and E-Mail of Key Security Council Members

Comments

Asterisks(*) indicate required fields.

Your name appears next to your comment.

This will be your login ID.

Forgot your password?

(Offensive materials and/or spam will be removed, no HTML allowed)

Please Note: Your sign-up must be verified via e-mail before your comment is published.

Canadian subs: 1 year, $17.00 (includes postage & GST). Foreign subs: 1 year, $30.00. U.S. funds. Canadian Subscribers - Click Here Non US and Canadian Subscribers - Click Here

Canadian subs: 1 year, $17.00 (includes postage & GST). Foreign subs: 1 year, $30.00. U.S. funds.
Canadian Subscribers - Click Here
Non US and Canadian Subscribers - Click Here