Am I the only person that did not know that the Postal Service--specifically, what they send to the Department of Homeland Security--could open your mail on purpose? After all this spying, eavesdropping, and wiretapping diaries, I had thought that we'd tapped out on new angles, new information, and new dialogue. But apparently not...
More...
From the
Lawrence Journal-World
A retired Kansas University professor says the federal government has been poking into
the mail he receives from abroad.
Grant Goodman on Monday showed the Journal-World a recent letter he had received from a friend in the Philippines; it apparently had been opened, then re-closed with green tape bearing the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a message that it had been opened "by Border Protection."
Border Protection? What is THAT? I've never heard of that...not to mention, the Philippines? So the DHS can open mail based SOLEY on a letter's country of origin/destination?
Is he some radical? Some kook? Is he Middle Eastern?
"Very uneasy. And very surprised," Goodman, 81,
a KU professor emeritus of history, said of his reaction to the federal snooping. "I never expected to see that."
....<snip>....
"I don't know why they would censor this kind of mail," he said. "It's amazing."
The U.S. government has been concerned about the Muslim insurgency in the Philippines, but Goodman said his correspondent -- a devoutly Catholic Filipino history professor in her 80s -- was an unlikely suspect to be connected to such causes. Goodman declined to reveal her name, saying he feared stirring up trouble for her.
"They were very upset it (warrantless wiretaps) was made public," he said of the government. "They might be upset with this."
The Web site of U.S. Customs and Border Protection says: "The Postal Service sends all foreign mail shipments to CBP for examination."
Well I'll be dammed. All foreign mail is examined? Wow, I had no idea (and maybe I'm the only one to be surprised by this). Most disturbing is that he is now unable/unwilling to name his pen-pal for fear of what our government might do.
How have we come to the point where we now fear every statement, every interview, could be grounds for trouble and harrasment?
