Operation TIPS
Out of Homeland Security Bill
 |
|
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) holds copy of U.S. Constitution during questioning of Attorney General John Ashcroft on Homeland Security. |
WASHINGTON,
July 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Congress has rebuffed a
controversial White House plan to recruit millions of U.S. citizens to
spy on their neighbors and others as part of stepped-up homeland
security efforts.
The
Homeland Security Bill passed late Friday by the House of
Representatives left out the "TIPS" program that would have
encouraged U.S. citizens to spy on one another - a proposal that drew
heated protests from civil liberties advocates.
TIPS,
or Terrorism Information Prevention System, was in the original bill
proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush, but after criticism from
both Republicans and Democrats, it was dropped from the final 200-page
bill that the Senate is set to consider next week.
The
Homeland Security bill that passed in the House was sponsored by
Republican House majority leader Dick Armey, who came out against
"citizens spying on one another" and included specific
language in the bill to prevent just that, said Armey spokesman
Richard Diamond.
The
bill that the Senate will examine next week, Diamond said, is not
likely to include a TIPS program.
TIPS
was proposed as kind of elaboration of the Neighborhood Watch system
already in place in most U.S. communities.
But
this system would call on people at work - truck drivers, dockworkers,
mail carriers, taxi drivers and others - to keep an eye peeled for
suspicious activities.
Explaining
the use of these resources, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said
that people in certain occupations were 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."
The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement that the
program "foresees the recruitment of a million volunteers drawn
from postal workers, cable installers, phone company personnel,
utility workers and others to look around peoples' homes and report
what they believe to be suspicious activities.
"This
program would make a mockery of individual privacy rights and
protections against illegal searches," the civil liberties
organization said.
U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft defended the program to the Senate
Judiciary Committee last Thursday.
"The
program would merely be a referral agency that sends information that
is phoned in to appropriate federal, state and local law enforcement
agencies," said Ashcroft, who has already met with the teamsters
and dockers' unions and enrolled their cooperation in the program.
TIPS
was not, Ashcroft said, "a program related to private places like
homes." Nevertheless, the U.S. Postal Service last week said it
would decline to participate in TIPS.
The
agency said in a statement issued Wednesday, "The Postal Service
had been approached by homeland security regarding Operation TIPS;
however, it was decided that the Postal Service and its letter
carriers would not be participating in the program at this time."
Some
critics called the plan a massive invasion of privacy like those used
by totalitarian regimes such as the notorious Stasi in East Germany,
the infamous secret police who kept files on almost a third of the
population.
The
ACLU said it was concerned that the program would waste resources on a
flood of useless tips and that the program would encourage vigilantism
and racial profiling.
"This
program would not only allow people's homes to be searched without
cause or warrants, but it would also turn neighbor against neighbor
and potentially generate thousands of unreasonable and unwarranted
charges against innocent people," said the ACLU.
"The
administration apparently wants to implement a program that will turn
local cable or gas or electrical technicians into
government-sanctioned Peeping Toms," said ACLU legislative
counsel, Rachel King.
Senator
Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, compared the
program to a ghetto informant program run by Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover in the 1960s.
FBI
agents hired neighbors of suspected political dissidents to spy on
them. "It was a very, very sorry time in our history," Leahy
said.
Even
though TIPS seems to be left on the wayside for the immediate future,
"outraged citizens" opposed to the program are planning to
hold a rally outside the Department of Justice Monday.
"They
were thinking about vetoing the Homeland Security bill and we want
them to know that no matter what, we definitely don't want this
program implemented," said Steven Weiss, a student at Penn State
University and one of the protest organizers. Bush has threatened to
veto the Homeland Security Bill if he is not granted more flexibility
in administering the new cabinet level department.
"We're
going to tell Ashcroft: 'You're getting absurd,'" said Weiss, who
said they are expecting "scores" of people at the rally.
"And
we're going to show our frustration at the administration's handling
of the war against terrorism. You know it's serious when they start
threatening our civil rights," Weiss said.
|
