Let's get the chronology right. The Sydney Morning Herald publicized the TIPS informant plan one month ago: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03749.html Then came the odd Salon report about America's Most Wanted (http://www.politechbot.com/p-03861.html), a suggestion last week that it was mistaken (http://www.politechbot.com/p-03867.html), and a possible explanation (http://www.politechbot.com/p-03879.html). A top Justice Department official defended TIPS ("We're not looking for a community of snoops") in a presentation to the American Bar Association annual confab over the weekend: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1939951,00.html And the Associated Press reported that, because of the controversy, TIPS "will not be put into effect until Congress returns in September. The idea is to allow time for consultation with lawmakers." See: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/10/operation.tips.ap/index.html But an anonymous Politechnical forwards an article that says otherwise. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the component of the TIPS program aimed at truckers is going forward as scheduled, saying that "2,000 truckers nationwide are authorized to report activity to a toll-free number..." See: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/3830417.htm So which is it? Is TIPS on hold or not? Or is the "Highway Watch" program technically unrelated, though practically very, and dangerously, similar? -Declan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Aug 13 2002 - 23:32:09 PDT