- Postal Officials Change Stance On Operation TIPS (July 18, 2002)
...aid Thursday it had decided to meet with the Justice Department to discuss Operation TIPS, a government plan to encourage U.S. postal workers to report suspicious a... - Ashcroft Defends Plan for National Hotline on Terrorism (July 25, 2002)
...the nation. In the House, the attack on the program, known as TIPS (for Terrorism Information and Prevention System), has been led by conservative Republicans, includi... - What Is Operation TIPS? (July 14, 2002)
...The Justice Department is not saying much about the Terrorism Information and Prevention System otherwise known as Operation TIPS which is due to begin as a pilot pro... - Labor Union Supports Bush TIPS Plan (August 7, 2002)
... up to help the Justice Department with its Operation TIPS. TIPS -- the Terrorism Information and Prevention System -- is one of the core elements of President Bush's... - Ashcroft vs. Americans (July 17, 2002)
...Operation TIPS the Terrorism Information and Prevention System is a scheme that Joseph Stalin would have appreciated. Plans for its pil... - US Planning To Recruit One In 24 Americans As Citizen Spies (July 15, 2002)
...tic 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 percentag... - Leahy Likens TIPS to Cold War Paranoia (July 17, 2002)
...Leahy told the Reformer Tuesday about the little-known Operation TIPS, the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, which is set to launch next month. According to... - The Spy-on-Every-Street-Corner Corps (July 18, 2002)
...TIPS, or Terrorism Information and Prevention System, is the latest brainchild of the Bush administration in the war against te... - Under Fire, Justice Shrinks TIPS Program (August 10, 2002)
...pt. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. TIPS, or the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, was billed as a way for various workers — in... - When Neighbors Attack! (August 6, 2002)
...y clues. To find out, I went to the Citizen Corps Web site, then to the Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS) page, and signed up as a volunteer. I quickl... - You Are a Suspect (November 14, 2002)
...ment snooping. In a similar overreach, Attorney General Ashcroft tried his Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS), but public outrage at the use of gossips an... - Losing the Home Front (December 22, 2002)
...martial-sounding than home front) security are actually quite large. TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) the thankfully deep-sixed idea for making spies... - Big Brother Goes to Washington (November 15, 2002)
...res a lot of opposition to this program. Keep in mind that when the TIPS [Terrorism Information and Prevention System] program was introduced by the attorney general, wh... - Bush Channels Orwell (July 28, 2002)
...suspicious activity as part of a program dubbed Operation TIPS — Terrorism Information and Prevention System. And thanks to the hastily passed USA Patriot A... -
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Operation TIPS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Operation TIPS, the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, was designed by President George W. Bush to have United States citizens report suspicious activity.
It came under intense scrutiny in July of 2002 when the Washington Post alleged in an editorial that the program was vaguely defined.
The program's website implied that US workers who had access to private citizens' homes, such as cable installers and telephone repair workers, would be reporting on what was in people's homes if it was deemed "suspicious."
Operation TIPS was accused of doing an "end run" around the United States Constitution. The original wording of the website was subsequently changed. President Bush's Attorney General, John Ashcroft, denied that private residences would be surveilled by private citizens operating as government spies.
Mr. Ashcroft nonetheless defended the program, equivocating on whether the reports by citizens on fellow citizens would be maintained in government databases. While saying that the information would not be in a central database as part of Operation TIPS, he maintained that the information would still be kept in databases by various law enforcement agencies.
The databases were an explicit concern of various civil liberties groups (on both the left and the right) who felt that such databases could include false information about citizens with no way for those citizens to know that such information was compiled about them, nor any way for them to correct the information, nor any way for them to confront their accusers.
The United States Postal Service has wavered on whether it would be a part of the Operation, initially considering it, then saying they would not participate, and then again saying that they were considering it.
Both Congressional Representative Dick Armey (Republican, Texas) and Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat, Vermont) raised concerns.
Rep. Armey included legislation in the House's Homeland Security Bill that explicitly prohibited the creation of Operation TIPS.
Senator Leahy raised the concern that it was similar to J. Edgar Hoover's misuse of the FBI during the 1960s when Hoover hired citizens to spy on neighbors who were political protesters.
President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft still want the program to be implemented. The initial start of the program was August of 2002. It was to include 1 million workers in 10 US cities and then to be expanded.
Some have calculated that if the 10 largest cities in America were involved, estimated at 24 million total citizens, the program would affect one in 24 Americans.
See also
- Official Operation TIPS web site
- HavenWorks' Operation TIPS News