2002.07.25: July 25, 2002: Headlines: Homeland Security: Tips: Speaking Out: Business Week: Mr. Attorney General, forget your plan for a system to promote Americans spying on Americans. It won't work -- and is un-American
Peace Corps Online:
Peace Corps News:
Headlines:
Peace Corps Headlines - 2002:
05 May 2002 Peace Corps Headlines:
May 1, 2002 - The Progressive: AmeriSnitch :
2002.07.25: July 25, 2002: Headlines: Homeland Security: Tips: Speaking Out: Business Week: Mr. Attorney General, forget your plan for a system to promote Americans spying on Americans. It won't work -- and is un-American
Mr. Attorney General, forget your plan for a system to promote Americans spying on Americans. It won't work -- and is un-American
Whatever the Administration's intentions, Operation TIPS won't work. A million informants could file several million tips a week, all of which would have to be followed up by law enforcement. One of the lessons learned from the September 11 tragedy is that a lack of information isn't what prevented the FBI from picking up on the terrorists' plans. It was an excess of badly organized and shared data. The TIPS program will only add to the problem by forcing agents to waste resources on unsubstantiated tips. Worse, many of those tips will come as a result of personal bias or racial profiling. "Law enforcement may end up chasing information based on uninformed citizens who have their own biases or may be prejudiced. It's an ineffective way to use police resources," says Rachel King, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. Another important -- and still-unanswered -- question is how will the data be stored, and who will have access to it. Will the TIPS program create FBI files on thousands, even millions, of unsuspecting Americans? And where will those files end up? The next time you're passed over for a job or a loan, will you wonder if it's because the cable guy filed a tip about your collection of Middle East travel books? "The U.S. government has a history of abusing information," says King. "These are not hysterical fears."
Mr. Attorney General, forget your plan for a system to promote Americans spying on Americans. It won't work -- and is un-American
Some TIPS for John Ashcroft
Mr. Attorney General, forget your plan for a system to promote Americans spying on Americans. It won't work -- and is un-American
Remember the movie The Cable Guy? It's the one where Jim Carrey plays a cable-TV repairman who only wants to help, yet he unwittingly sets out to ruin the life of one of his customers. That story could be coming to a reality near you.
That's right. The government wants your cable guy, meter reader, even your postman to voluntarily report any and all suspicious information about you to a new, central FBI database. It's called Operation TIPS, short for the Terrorism Information & Prevention System. The goal is to give millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, and utility employees a formal way to report suspicious activity.
A pilot phase, slated to begin later this summer, would initially recruit 1 million workers in 10 cities. The Teamsters Union has already signed on. The U.S. Postal Service, which originally said its 800,000 workers would not participate, is also encouraging its workforce to join.
SOWING SUSPICION. The idea is the brainchild of Attorney General John Ashcroft. But like many of Ashcroft's salvos in the war on terrorism, Operation TIPS will more than likely reduce privacy without increasing security. Let's be real: Terrorists with half a brain aren't likely to be outsmarted by the mailman or open the door to have the gas meter read if they have bomb-making material nearby.
But ordinary people, who might be reading the Koran, will. The result could be a flood of unsubstantiated and largely irrelevant tips that overwhelm law-enforcement officials already mired in data. Worst of all, the program could sow the seeds of suspicion among loyal American citizens.
Privacy-protection advocates allege that Operation TIPS is simply a way for the FBI to get into people's homes without a warrant. Before the police or FBI can search your residence, they need probable cause and an order from a judge. But you let the cable guy into your home voluntarily. And once you do that, you relinquish certain rights of privacy. Whatever the cable guy sees is fair game.
"This is an end run around the Fourth Amendment," warns Harvey Silverglate, a Boston civil liberties lawyer. "It's a way into every American's home without judicial oversight."
A PHONE LINE WOULD DO. The government maintains that it has no intention of recruiting a civilian army of spies. The Justice Dept. declined to return repeated calls for comment or elaboration on Operation TIPS. In a terse statement, Justice's Director of Public Affairs Barbara Comstock said Operations TIPS is a program that empowers Americans "uniquely well positioned to understand the ordinary course of business in the area they serve, and to identify things that are out of the ordinary."
If that's the case, why do we need TIPS at all? Robert Levy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, argues that if the aim is a central database to log suspicious activity, it would be better to simply publish a toll-free phone number for all 285 million Americans, not just 10 million workers with special access to individuals' homes.
Some powerful legislators agree. On July 18, House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.) added language to the House version of the Homeland Security Bill (which would create the new Homeland Security Dept.) that would prohibit Justice from setting up Operation TIPS.
BIASED REPORTS. Whatever the Administration's intentions, Operation TIPS won't work. A million informants could file several million tips a week, all of which would have to be followed up by law enforcement. One of the lessons learned from the September 11 tragedy is that a lack of information isn't what prevented the FBI from picking up on the terrorists' plans. It was an excess of badly organized and shared data. The TIPS program will only add to the problem by forcing agents to waste resources on unsubstantiated tips.
Worse, many of those tips will come as a result of personal bias or racial profiling. "Law enforcement may end up chasing information based on uninformed citizens who have their own biases or may be prejudiced. It's an ineffective way to use police resources," says Rachel King, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Another important -- and still-unanswered -- question is how will the data be stored, and who will have access to it. Will the TIPS program create FBI files on thousands, even millions, of unsuspecting Americans? And where will those files end up? The next time you're passed over for a job or a loan, will you wonder if it's because the cable guy filed a tip about your collection of Middle East travel books? "The U.S. government has a history of abusing information," says King. "These are not hysterical fears."
OVERBLOWN FEARS. Not everyone is so worried. "Deterring potential criminality requires pattern recognition. You have to identify factors or people who are acting out of context. And it isn't wrong to try to do that better," says Paul Rosensweig, a senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Rosensweig adds that fears of a new McCarthyism are overblown. He sees Operation TIPS as a simple extension of other government programs such as Highway Watch, Coast Watch, and River Watch, which enable workers on key transport routes to report unusual activity.
Perhaps. But those programs involve eyes trained on public thoroughfares. The idea that government and private-sector workers will do surveillance on their fellow citizens in their own homes is simply un-American.
For evidence, we need only look at the results of the McCarthy era's red-baiting. In his memoir Timebends, Arthur Miller recalls the conversation he had with film director Elia Kazan who had decided to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. As Miller walked away, he felt "pure sadness." "Who and what was safer because this man in his human weakness had been forced to humiliate himself?" Miller wondered. The same should be asked about Operation TIPS.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: July, 2002; Homeland Security; Tips Program; Speaking Out; The Peace Corps Library; Peace Corps History; Bulletin Board; Recent Peace Corps News
When this story was posted in May 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| PCOL serves half million PCOL's readership for April exceeded 525,000 visitors - a 50% increase over last year. This year also saw the advent of a new web site: Peace Corps News that together with the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps serve 17,000 RPCVs, Staff, and Friends of the Peace Corps every day. Thanks for making PCOL your source of news for the Peace Corps community. Read more. |
| Suspect confesses in murder of PCV Search parties in the Philippines discovered the body of Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell near Barangay Batad, Banaue town on April 17. Director Tschetter expressed his sorrow at learning the news. “Julia was a proud member of the Peace Corps family, and she contributed greatly to the lives of Filipino citizens in Donsol, Sorsogon, where she served,” he said. Latest: Suspect Juan Duntugan admits to killing Campbell. Leave your thoughts and condolences . |
| Warren Wiggins: Architect of the Peace Corps Warren Wiggins, who died at 84 on April 13, became one of the architects of the Peace Corps in 1961 when his paper, "A Towering Task," landed in the lap of Sargent Shriver, just as Shriver was trying to figure out how to turn the Peace Corps into a working federal department. Shriver was electrified by the treatise, which urged the agency to act boldly. Read Mr. Wiggins' obituary and biography, take an opportunity to read the original document that shaped the Peace Corps' mission, and read John Coyne's special issue commemorating "A Towering Task." |
| Chris Dodd's Vision for the Peace Corps Senator Chris Dodd (RPCV Dominican Republic) spoke at the ceremony for this year's Shriver Award and elaborated on issues he raised at Ron Tschetter's hearings. Dodd plans to introduce legislation that may include: setting aside a portion of Peace Corps' budget as seed money for demonstration projects and third goal activities (after adjusting the annual budget upward to accommodate the added expense), more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, removing medical, healthcare and tax impediments that discourage older volunteers, providing more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, a more comprehensive health safety net for recently-returned volunteers, and authorizing volunteers to accept, under certain circumstances, private donations to support their development projects. He plans to circulate draft legislation for review to members of the Peace Corps community and welcomes RPCV comments. |
| He served with honor One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor. |
| Peace Corps' Screening and Medical Clearance The purpose of Peace Corps' screening and medical clearance process is to ensure safe accommodation for applicants and minimize undue risk exposure for volunteers to allow PCVS to complete their service without compromising their entry health status. To further these goals, PCOL has obtained a copy of the Peace Corps Screening Guidelines Manual through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and has posted it in the "Peace Corps Library." Applicants and Medical Professionals (especially those who have already served as volunteers) are urged to review the guidelines and leave their comments and suggestions. Then read the story of one RPCV's journey through medical screening and his suggestions for changes to the process. |
| The Peace Corps is "fashionable" again The LA Times says that "the Peace Corps is booming again and "It's hard to know exactly what's behind the resurgence." PCOL Comment: Since the founding of the Peace Corps 45 years ago, Americans have answered Kennedy's call: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Over 182,000 have served. Another 200,000 have applied and been unable to serve because of lack of Congressional funding. The Peace Corps has never gone out of fashion. It's Congress that hasn't been keeping pace. |
| PCOL readership increases 100% Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. |
| History of the Peace Corps PCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Business Week
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Homeland Security; Tips; Speaking Out
PCOL36565
11