[Clips] Homeland Security opening private mail

[R. A. Hettinga]

 Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
 Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 20:48:33 -0500
 To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
 From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
 Subject: [Clips] Homeland Security opening private mail
 Reply-To: rah at philodox.com
 Sender: clips-bounces at philodox.com

 <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.


 --
 -----------------
 R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
 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'
 _______________________________________________
 Clips mailing list
 Clips at philodox.com
 http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips

-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
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'