topic by
Johnh Calvin
7/17/2002 (15:11) |
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US security shake-up to involve millions of peeping toms
Walter Ellis in New York
PLANS to set up a far-reaching US department of homeland security were announced yesterday in Washington by the US president, George Bush. The package is aimed at bringing hundreds of disparate security and surveillance operations, as well as rapid response initiatives, under the umbrella of a new cabinet office.
However, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill begin to respond to issues raised by the proposal, including controversial aspects of its funding and changes to the relationship between federal government and the states, concerns are emerging over a low-key, parallel initiative by the justice department.
Known as Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System), the initiative seeks to recruit millions of Americans into a Citizen Corps. The idea is that lorry drivers, postal workers, train conductors, ships’ captains, utility workers and others should have an official means of reporting anything they come across that strikes them as dangerous or “anti-American”.
Every participant in what the justice department calls its “national reporting system” would be given an Operation TIPS sticker to be put in a prominent place so that the toll-free reporting number would be to hand. Other “concerned” citizens would be invited to call a toll-free hotline that would route calls to the “proper law enforcement agency or other responder organisations”.
The American Civil Liberties Union has already expressed grave doubts about the programme, which it characterises as turning local cable, gas or electricity workers into “government-sanctioned peeping toms”. Rachel King, the ACLU legal spokeswoman, fears that volunteers could be used by law enforcement agencies to search people’s homes and offices without a warrant. “Also worrisome is the potential for the programme to adversely affect the fight against terrorism by wasting resources on useless tips, and the possibility that [it] would encourage vigilantism and racial profiling.”
The Washington Post, in an editorial, said that “Americans should not be subjecting themselves to law enforcement scrutiny merely by having cable lines installed, mail delivered or meters read”. The police, under present legislation, could not routinely enter houses without either permission or a warrant, the Post said. “They should not be using utility workers to conduct surveillance they could not lawfully conduct themselves.”
“Our enemy is smart and resolute. We are smarter and more resolute,” Mr Bush said yesterday in a letter to the American people accompanying his 100-page strategy for the reform of homeland security. The plan, echoing President Harry Truman’s response to the Cold War, says the goals are to prevent terrorism, reduce vulnerability to attacks and minimise damage from any that do occur.
“Our society presents an almost infinite array of potential targets that can be attacked through a variety of methods. We must be prepared to adapt as our enemies in the war on terrorism alter their means of attack,” it says.
There has already been criticism of aspects of the package, which would bring the activities of not only the CIA and FBI, but of the national guard, coast guard and state and local police forces under a single department. Republicans as well as Democrats have expressed concern that so much power and responsibility should be exercised by one department.
There has also been criticism of the suggestion that budget adjustments relating to the department’s anti-terrorist activities should not have to be ratified by Congress.
But yesterday’s document goes further than was anticipated, recommending changes in state and federal laws. It is now proposed individual states should co-ordinate regulations relating, for example, to obtaining a driver’s licence. The strategy also recommends better computer security.
The plan calls for the federal government to have greater authority to call out the national guard. It proposes that the president should have more power to transfer money appropriated by Congress to deal with terrorist threats inside the United States’ borders.
The irony in the creation of a million or more state-registered informers is that the US could find itself being compared to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Nicolae Ceaucescu’s Romania, or the former East Germany, where millions of ordinary citizens were in the pay of its secret police, the Stasi.
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