FC: Conservative group lobbies for snooping on U.S. mail

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/09/28/0558214&mode=thread

   Conservative Group Lobbies for U.S. Mail Snooping
   posted by cicero on Thursday September 28, @12:43AM
   from the guess-we-know-what-their-priorities-are dept.

   The conservative group Americans for Tax Reform is lobbying to
   expand federal snooping of the U.S. mail. ATR Vice President Michael
   Kamburowski this week dashed off a letter to Capitol Hill complaining
   that the "U.S. Customs Service has been prevented from inspecting all
   outbound mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service," and urging that
   legislators support a new bill that would expand government
   surveillance of letters and packages. The justification: Shipments of
   illegal drugs. Kamburowski even quoted from a popular marijuana seed
   web site, which advises customers to avoid "UPS, Federal Express, or
   any other overnight express service" and use the post office instead.
   The bill was introduced this week by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL). It's
   an odd stance for ATR, a group headed by Republican Party icon Grover
   Norquist, to take -- they've been staunch advocates of
   privacy-protecting encryption products in the past and ostensibly
   oppose intrusive government. Guess fighting that ol'War on Drugs is
   just more important. (See below for ATR's email messages.)

The email messages from ATR:
http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/09/28/0558214&mode=thread




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