Defense secretary Rumsfeld claims that al Qaeda uses press leaks to plan attacks on U.S.: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-na-leaks16jul16005042.story State Department unlawfully detains reporter who asked tough questions: http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/nr_comment/nr_comment071202.asp Washington Post editorial ("Americans should not be subjecting themselves to law enforcement scrutiny merely by having cable lines installed, mail delivered or meters read"): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63924-2002Jul12.html More: http://www.aclu.org/news/2002/n071502a.html http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020716-75882632.htm Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03749.html -Declan --- From: WMadsen777at_private Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 16:34:05 EDT Subject: "No" to U.S. Stasi-- petition/statement of non-cooperation I have created an online petition for those who refuse to cooperate with President Bush's Citizens Corps TIPS, Citizens Corps Councils, Neighborhood Watch and Police Volunteer Services. Signature window expires 1 Oct. Afterwards this petition will be sent to Tom Ridge, President Bush, John Ashcroft, and the congressional leadership. Its really not a petition but a statement of non-cooperation with these new snooping organizations ---a sort of cyber-oriented civil disobedience campaign. The petition/statement of non-cooperation is at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/NoTIPS/petition.html --- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAG TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2002 (202) 514-2007 WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888 STATEMENT OF BARBARA COMSTOCK, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGARDING THE TIPS PROGRAM "First and foremost, Operation TIPS is a program under development, and its blueprint is not yet finalized. The Operation TIPS reporting system was announced in concept six months ago, and we look forward to its rollout in the late summer or early fall. "Operation TIPS is simply a reporting system - not a membership organization or recruiting activity - based upon successful existing non-governmental programs like Highway Watch, River Watch and Coast Watch, which enable American workers to report unusual and non-emergency issues that they observe in the normal course of their work. Several of these industries have requested a uniform method of reporting such matters to public authorities. "The industries that will be involved in Operation TIPS represent workers who have regular routines that take them down roads, rivers, coastlines, and public transit routes, and through neighborhoods and communities. Their jobs make them 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. Many of these industries already have taken steps to offer their employees a voluntary way to report this type of information, but they are looking to the Department of Justice to offer a comprehensive, reliable and cost-effective voluntary reporting system. Operation TIPS is that voluntary reporting system through which information can be maintained and analyzed in a single database, and will be referred to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies for appropriate follow-up. "None of the Operation TIPS materials published on the web or elsewhere have made reference to entry or access to the homes of individuals; nor has it ever been the intention of the Department of Justice, or any other agency, to set up such a program. Our interest in establishing the Operation TIPS program is to allow American workers to share information they receive in the regular course of their jobs in public places and areas. Once they report the information, they can rest assured that law enforcement officials will be taking any appropriate next steps." --- From: Manzoni Jean-Christophe <manzoniat_private> To: declanat_private Subject: Re: FC: Bush administration readies nationwide informant program Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 08:26:41 -0400 Hi there, It's the first time it reply to one of your mail : I have too much respect for your work to disrupt it with my futile comments, written in my broken english. But THIS? I am simply flabergasted. I live in Canada where we'd like to think we are sooo different from the usa, but not really, and I can't believe I am reading this. I mean, it is in the same ballpark as Romania, East Germany or USSR. What is next : detention without trial (oups)? Public Executions? I thought delation was out forever. I can't believe in 2002, we are seeing the EXACT same thing as we did so soon. I mean it's the return of McCartism, the usual propaganda like it was used and abused in the 30s, 40s and to some extent 50s. These days, whenever I read your mails, I have the distinct impression somebody teared a page of either Brave New World or 1984, and applied it to the letter. But hey, you can't blame 'them': it works. People are buying this. I don't understand, and I can't believe it in the 'land of the free', the government will find 1,000,000 people to spy/report on their fellow citizen. In the name of 'good'. Tell me what was the latest % of the american population satisfied with G Dubbya Bush? Is that 68%? There is a famous saying, that you would recall better than I : the one who trades freedom for security deserves neither one. Please continue fighting, it is not tolerable and it is going to happen! And it is a shame for mankind. Christopher Manzoni --- Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 23:15:59 -0400 To: declanat_private From: Stephen Cobb <scobbat_private> Subject: Re: FC: Bush administration readies nationwide informant program Declan "Operation TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called war against terrorism. It is a Department of Justice project." Sydney Morning Herald I don't mean to get the black helicopter crowd excited, but it looks like FEMA, not the DoJ, may be running Operation TIPS - the Terrorism Information and Prevention System that will give millions of American truckers, letter carriers, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity (and hopefully some form of training on how to distinguish suspicious terrorist activity from other forms of activity). The web site http://www.citizencorps.gov is clearly a FEMA web site. If you click on the link there TIPS and then "Volunteer now" you are presented with a Security Alert that references a digital Certificate issued by FEMA (as you know, FEMA is run by Mr. Allbaugh, the National Campaign Manager for Bush-Cheney 2000, who previously served as Campaign Manager for President Bush's first run for Texas governor). The "Guide for local officials" published at the Citizen Corps web site does say that TIPS is administered by DoJ. But the FEMA site says Citizen Corps is part of USA Freedom Corps. When you go to the DoJ site and click on their link to USA Freedom Corps you get this message: "The Department of Justice takes no responsibility for, and exercises no control over, the organizations, views, accuracy, copyright or trademark compliance or legality of the material contained on this server." And I can't not find word one about TIPS at the DoJ site. The plot thickens? Or a simple case of nobody really knowing what is going on? Stephen --- Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 17:29:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Dan Tsang <dtsangat_private> To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Subject: [Subv] Ex-NSA Officer on Civil Liberties at Stake (fwd) Irvine -- How have civil liberties been eroded since 9/11? On Subversity, a KUCI public affairs interview program, we chat with Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer who has since "come in out of the cold". On the show he offers his analysis of the currents state of civil liberties. Madsen is interviewed by show host Dan Tsang from 4-5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16,2002 om KUCI, 88.9 fm in Irvine; the show is simultaneously web-cast via kuci.org. Wayne Madsen is the Washington correspondent for intelligence Online. He has written for The Village Voice, The Progressive, In These Times, CovertAction Quarterly, and Counterpunch. Mr. Madsen is the author of Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999 (Mellen Press) and The Handbook of Personal Data Protection (Macmillan). Mr. Madsen has some twenty years experience in national security and intelligence matters. He has worked for the Naval Telecommunications Command, National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation. Mr. Madsen is a Senior Fellow of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a non-partisan privacy public advocacy group in Washington, DC. To chat with Madsen, call (949) 824-5824 during the show. Thanx for listening! Selected Resources: Homeland Security, Homeland Profits by Wayne Madsen http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=1108 Spies Magazine Links to Wayne Madsen's articles http://www.spiescafe.com/wm/wayne.htm Prepared Statement... by Wayne Madsen on Suffering and Despair: Humanitarian Crisis in the Congo before a House Subcommittee http://www.house.gov/international_relations/mads0517.htm US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies by Ritt Goldstein http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/14/1026185141232.html Operation TIPS [Justice Dept. informant program begins] http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html dan Daniel C. Tsang Host, Subversity, now Tuesdays, 4-5 p.m. KUCI, 88.9 FM and Web-cast live via http://kuci.org Subversity: http://kuci.org/~dtsang; E-mail: subversityat_private Daniel Tsang, KUCI, PO Box 4362, Irvine CA 92616 UCI Tel: (949) 824-4978; UCI Fax: (949) 824-2700 UCI Office: 380 Main Library Member, National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org) WWW News Resource Page: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/netnews1.htm AWARE: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/aware2.htm Personal Homepage: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/ --- From: Doug Carroll To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Subject: Re: FC: Bush administration readies nationwide informant program Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 01:05:10 -0400 Declan, This reminds me of the Chinese "grandmother core", which are retired people with the time to spy on neighbours - and the pettiness to do so. It is a vicious system worthy of, and well beyond, Joseph McCarthy, where Communists are now Terrorists. Also assigning volunteers to effect searches on behalf of law enforcement violates the Fourth Amendment. These 'volunteers' are part of a state system, and therefore act as agents of that state - and should be bound by the same Constitutional limits. If used, please conceal my email, so I don't get spam. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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