Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush Administration set up Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) which was little more than a civilian corps of informers. Anyone whose job takes him or her into someone's home - mail carriers, plumbers, home nurses, etc - was given the job of looking for anything "suspicious" and report it. Millions of perfectly law-abiding citizens could have been turned in for having the "wrong" books on their shelves or the "wrong" pictures on the wall. After it was leaked to the media, an uproar ensued and the program was shut down.
Until now.
The Denver Post is reporting that the White House is up to its old tricks, only under a different name. "Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers," the newspaper says, "have been trained and recently dispatched as 'Terrorism Liaison Officers' in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for 'suspicious activity' - and are reporting their findings into secret government databases."
Of course, "suspicious activity" is defined so vaguely as to encompass practically everything. The TLO's training materials advise informers to watch out for anyone "taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code." This would ensnare realtors, surveyors, journalists, shutterbugs, public speakers, and a whole host of other entirely innocent people.
Joseph Stalin would be proud of the national security state we are constructing. When everyone spies on everyone else, and when people are afraid to speak out, we have become the sort of repressive society Osama bin Laden would love.
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