The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.
The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report “suspicious activity”.
Civil liberties groups have already warned that, with the passage earlier this year of the Patriot Act, there is potential for abusive, large-scale investigations of US citizens.
As with the Patriot Act, TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called war against terrorism. It is a Department of Justice project.
I wonder when UNATCO will be implemented… then the Statue Of Liberty will be blown up and will live the REAL Deus Ex. And then Tom will be saying, “The world sucks now, you search through meaningless crates for stuff.”
Ah, I think its kind of scary actually. But what can you do. They must be getting some dire threats to want them to implement this… like some nuclear threats or biovirus whatever stuff, like some new Black Plague… like in Deus Ex!!!
“Ah, I think its kind of scary actually. But what can you do. They must be getting some dire threats to want them to implement this… like some nuclear threats or biovirus whatever stuff, like some new Black Plague… like in Deus Ex!!!”
All I know is Ashcroft loves to warn us that we’re going to be attacked. He loves to tell us that, but then he doesn’t tell us what to do, so his warnings are essentially worthless. I guess that’s the Justic Department engaging in Operation CYA.
Wanting to have a good first day on the job in my new snitch position, I have reported Murph already. New car, new camera, old driveway. WHAT IS HE HIDING IN THE DRIVEWAY?!
Since the initial email from them seemed only as a confirmation of my service, I didn’t bother reporting it to that email. I didn’t want to ask my new direct superior (whoever that might be) what to do and look like an idiot on the first day - so I reported him straight to one our sister orginization leaders, McGruff the crime dog.
So murph if you see a dog in a trench coat checking out your house, that was me who sent him, baby. And let that be a warning to the rest of you out there. Not sure what the warning really is past - don’t be so murph like - but you all just better watch it now that I am a super snitch.
Yea!!! I love Dues Ex… If it happens, I want my nano augmatations to be to jump 100 ft. high! That would rock. Oh… And I want a light to see in the dark and and cool… I’ll be just like the dude in Dues ex…
“Bush is a war monger. We need his ass out of office and we need Al Gore!! Damn… I wish slick Willie could lead us to another 8 yrs.”
Clinton’s wildly popular outside the US and still has a lot of support here. He would have beaten Bush easily, I’m sure. Gore’s just a weak candidate.
I’d like to see Bush ousted, but I doubt Gore can do it. Gephardt doesn’t really energize people. I think it will take some dark horse getting the nomination to beat Bush. Bush seems to have some of that teflon non-stick quality about him that Reagan and Clinton had.
I think we need a special prosector to investigate the White House cabinent and their ties to all these corporate scandals. I think 6-8 years of investigation and $70 million will dig up some dirt. Heh.
Isnt this why police departments have phone numbers?
or is this just the lazy man’s COINTELLPRO
oh I am sry that was the Patriot Act
I guess this is just to reinforce those illusions of unity between the people and its masters, er, leaders. and of course a governments greatest paranoia is always of a domestic uprising, keeping the morons informing on each other is a great way to undermine any kind of solid organization.
But I am just a paranoid dissenter and it is ok b/c Tom Brockaw says so. and USA today is adamant that there really is such a thing as terrorism…
and we really do live in a democracy, and pieces of fucking toilet paper will be enough to ensure all of us our liberties and and…
I wonder when UNATCO will be implemented… then the Statue Of Liberty will be blown up and will live the REAL Deus Ex. And then Tom will be saying, “The world sucks now, you search through meaningless crates for stuff.”
That’s really funny. Did you guys ever notice how the generic grunt enemies in Deus Ex looked exactly like the generic grunt Cobra enemies in GI Joe?
I like TIPS because it spawned some funny jokes, but I think anyone who really thinks it’s going to be the next Stasi either doesn’t know what the Stasi was or is a paranoid nutcase. Speaking of paranoid nutcases, the hysterical article Chet linked to was written by a guy named Ritt Goldstein. According to the official bio at the end of the piece:
Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He has lived in Sweden since 1997, seeking political asylum there, saying he was the victim of life-threatening assaults in retaliation for his accountability efforts.
He’s seeking political asylum from the U.S. - and this is the pre-Stasi U.S. we’re talking about.
The people who run TIPS, Citizen Corps, are also in charge of the treacherous Neighborhood Watch program, which I’d like to be the first to call the U.S Gestapo.
I would just like to point out - besides ruining all the fun - Erik is a… you know - the race that secretly rules politics and the movie industry in the USA??
Let’s put it this way - he found out about my posting here because my email to the crimedog went right to him and his people.
Don’t believe anything he says, even if it is posted under the guys bio.
I do question some of my new boss’s ideas. Especially the following:
Operation TIPS, involving 1 million workers in the pilot stage, will be a national reporting system that allows these workers, whose routines make them well-positioned to recognize unusual events, to report suspicious activity. Every participant in this new program will be given an Operation TIPS information sticker to be affixed to the cab of their vehicle or placed in some other public location so that the toll-free reporting number is readily available.
So they want the workers to report suspicious activities, but instead of giving them a card so they can remember the phone number to report the activity, they want them to affix a sticker - publicly showing they are snitches - so they can then consult their vehicle to make a phone call?
I have some problems, first - i am a super secret snitch. Second, can I affix the sticker to the inside of my house? Otherwise I will have to go outside of my house to see the number to make the call.
Damn this is so confusing. It has been years since i worked for someone else. Does anyone know where the snitch water coolor is? I need to have some pleasant informal talk with my fellow snitches. Or are water coolers out and something else in as the place to meet?
My dream ticket is Powell & McCain in 2004 (as Independants). Yeah, they’re Republicans but who do the Democrats have? A trial lawyer with zero experience in business or foreign affairs, a guy trading on his ‘veteran’ status with delusions of being JFK, and a big, fat, loser.
Powell might be able to undo some of the damage Bush has done to our foreign standing. McCain could whip up on campaign finance and business. The whole odd couple, good cop/bad cop, thing works for me.
But for some ungodly reason these two seem to have some misplaced loyalty to the Republican party - they’ll never run.
At any rate, there was a cartoon recently that had Bush walking into his cabinet meeting asking, “What did ya’ll think about my putting corporate criminals away?” and seats are all empty. :)
Yeah, McCain was a great canidate. I would’ve voted for him, but I had to vote for Nader instead. I think a Powell/McCain ticket would have a great chance of winning. There were organizations trying to get McCain to run as an independant in the last election once he lost the nomination.
McCain could switch parties and run as a Democrat. I’m sure he’s been approached on this. He would give Bush a real race.
He’s too old to want to run as a VP, I think.
I doubt Powell would run as an indie. He doesn’t seem to have the thirst for something like that, and loyalty is important to him. He’s likely to more or less retire from politics after this first term is up. It’s sad how he’s been relegated to the sidelines by the Bush administration.
