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Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 20:48:33 -0500
To: Philodox Clips List
From: "R. A. Hettinga"
Subject: [Clips] Homeland Security opening private mail
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10740935/print/1/displaymode/1098/
MSNBC.com
Homeland Security opening private mail
Retired professor confused, angered when letter from abroad is opened
By Brock N. Meeks
Chief Washington correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 5:55 p.m. ET Jan. 6, 2006
WASHINGTON - In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded
with a colleague in the Philippines he never had any reason to suspect that
their friendship was anything but spectacularly ordinary.
But now he believes that the relationship has somehow sparked the interest
of the Department of Homeland Security and led the agency to place him
under surveillance.
Last month Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history
professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had
been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words
"by Border Protection" and carrying the official Homeland Security seal.
"I had no idea (Homeland Security) would open personal letters," Goodman
told MSNBC.com in a phone interview. "That's why I alerted the media. I
thought it should be known publicly that this is going on," he said.
Goodman originally showed the letter to his own local newspaper, the
Kansas-based Lawrence Journal-World.
"I was shocked and there was a certain degree of disbelief in the
beginning," Goodman said when he noticed the letter had been tampered with,
adding that he felt his privacy had been invaded. "I think I must be under
some kind of surveillance."
Goodman is no stranger to mail snooping; as an officer during World War II
he was responsible for reading all outgoing mail of the men in his command
and censoring any passages that might provide clues as to his unit's
position. "But we didn't do it as clumsily as they've done it, I can tell
you that," Goodman noted, with no small amount of irony in his voice.
"Isn't it funny that this doesn't appear to be any kind of surreptitious
effort here," he said.
The letter comes from a retired Filipino history professor; Goodman
declined to identify her. And although the Philippines is on the U.S.
government's radar screen as a potential spawning ground for Muslim-related
terrorism, Goodman said his friend is a devout Catholic and not given to
supporting such causes.
A spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection division said he couldn't
speak directly to Goodman's case but acknowledged that the agency can, will
and does open mail coming to U.S. citizens that originates from a foreign
country whenever it's deemed necessary.
"All mail originating outside the United States Customs territory that is
to be delivered inside the U.S. Customs territory is subject to Customs
examination," says the CBP Web site. That includes personal
correspondence. "All mail means 'all mail,'" said John Mohan, a CBP
spokesman, emphasizing the point.
"This process isn't something we're trying to hide," Mohan said, noting the
wording on the agency's Web site. "We've had this authority since before
the Department of Homeland Security was created," Mohan said.
However, Mohan declined to outline what criteria are used to determine when
a piece of personal correspondence should be opened, but said, "obviously
it's a security-related criteria."
Mohan also declined to say how often or in what volume CBP might be opening
mail. "All I can really say is that Customs and Border Protection does
undertake [opening mail] when it is determined to be necessary," he said.
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R. A. Hettinga
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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R. A. Hettinga
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'