Justice Department Prepares Citizen Watch. USDOJ registered postal workers, plumbers, police and painters .. spying on you in your home

DOJgov.net Newswire July 19, 2002

Back in the late 1990's a new sci-fi show entitled "Babylon 5" made its debut on TV.  Taking place amidst the turmoil of increasingly manipulative government on earth Babylon 5 was a five mile long city in space.  Built by earth, it played home to 250,000 inhabitants encompassing the best and worst of numerous civilizations.  It was billed as the last great hope for humanity.

As our own planet slid out of democracy and into a federally manipulated totalitarianism, government representatives from earth arrived on Babylon 5 to recruit people for something called "The Night Watch."

It started innocuously enough.  Publicly spirited citizens (mostly government employees), were appealed to on grounds of patriotism and keeping earth safe.  They were simply asked to keep an eye out for any out of the ordinary activity.  In time, undesirables were defined as anyone who spoke any words of criticism, no matter how innocuous.

In mid July 2002, the AP reported that the US Department of Justice would be asking millions of Americans  to watch for suspicious activity and report it to the government under a program that they were organizing.

Operation TIPS - Terrorism Information and Prevention System - drew prompt criticism from civil rights advocates, forcing government officials to deny that it would result in Americans spying on each other.

"The last thing we want is Americans spying on Americans,'' Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said in an interview with radio reporters. "That's just not what the TIPS program is all about.''

The plan drew a stronger response from the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The administration apparently wants to implement a program that will turn local cable or gas or electrical technicians into government-sanctioned Peeping Toms,'' Rachel King, an ACLU legislative counsel, said in a statement.

The ACLU said it was concerned that these volunteers would, in effect, be searching people's homes without warrants.

What the ACLU or Tom Ridge failed to clarify was that TIPS circumvents the unreasonable search and seizure provisions of our already denuded Fourth Amendment.  It nullifies protection of the Exclusionary Rule.  It is a control gimmick deftly lifted from the lexicon of Nazi Germany.

Barbara Comstock, director of public affairs for the Justice Department, replied that the project is still under development. She denied Justice had any intent for people to enter or have access to the homes of individuals.

She went on to explain that the idea was to organize information from people whose jobs take them through neighborhoods, along the coasts and highways and on public transit.  It was to provide a central reporting point for unusual but non-emergency situations.  Among those involved in the program would be mail carriers and others.

Tom Ridge told reporters that people in certain occupations are ideal observers. "They might pick up a break in the certain rhythm or pattern of a community. They may pick up in the course of their daily business something that's very unusual.''

He noted that the program is currently voluntary.

Operation TIPS is a part of the Citizen Corps, an initiative announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address.

The Postal Service issued a statement saying it has had preliminary discussions with the Department of Justice and Bush's homeland security office, but no final agreements have been reached.

"It is important to note, however, that the Postal Service has [already] established processes for our postal employees nationwide to report suspicious activity to the Postal Inspection Service and to local authorities,'' the agency said.

Justice plans to begin the project in August in 10 cities, to be selected. Participants will be able to report anything unusual to a toll-free phone number.

No plans have yet been announced for a "Junior" TIP's program involving school children spying on their parents and reporting back to their teachers or special government counselors.

But applications for spying on fellow citizens are already posted by the government on the internet.  You can reach it by going to:

Operation TIPS: http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html

Just in case things get too hot for the government and they drop this program until its resurrection with the next act of terrorism, www.DOJgov.net has gone to this site and converted several pages into viewable PDF files.

You can read or download these pages for a  USDOJ sanitized explanation of where our declining legacy of liberty is headed. See the right column of this page.