Two reporters are working on a terrorism story. One sends the other an envelope. The Customs Service seizes the FedEx package, and gives the package to the FBI. What’s worse? The content of the correspondence was a document unclassified eight years ago, they had no warrant, and did not notify either reporter or the AP.
The Customs Service says that the inspection was part of their random inspections. The FBI says the material, which covered the items seized from Ramsey Yousef’s apartment in the Phillipines, was sensitive. You’ll remember Yousef as the fellow behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and a planner in the Pacific airline plot. These same documents were entered into evidence into two seperate trials, so the FBI claim fails spectacularly.
Let’s recap:
- Customs Service seizes mail (well afield of its jurisdiction)
- FBI decides unclassified material (in the public record!) is classified again.
- The government took personal correspondence without warrant or notification.
- FedEx violated its own policies by not referring AP to the Customs Service, and instead paid $100 to compensate for the missing parcel.
- The AP only discovered the seizure after a receiving an anonymous tip
Let’s be totally clear about this: the Customs Service is opening your mail and will surrender it to any governement agency functionary without notice or warrant, and did so with the tacit cooperation of FedEx. Balls.
PS – The intended recipient of the package, AP Washington Bureau reporter John Solomon, is on the FBI’s shit list. There was an unpleasant episode in May of 2001 involving Senator Robert Torricelli and an anonymous FBI informant that resulted in a secret wiretap on Solomon’s phone.
How many times does the FBI have to go rogue before Congress starts taking it apart? Add this to the even-longer list of reasons for a formal domestic intelligence agency with proper oversight and controls. Having these federal cops running around taking my mail without a warrant is absolutely chilling. This should be a front-page scandal, not buried on the AP wire.
a technology job is no excuse 