January 10, 2006
U.S. Can Open Private Mail in Terrorism Fight
"Customs and Border Protection is charged with making sure that terrorists and terrorists' weapons don't enter the country," said Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for the customs agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
"One of our areas of responsibility is to inspect international mail coming into our country," she said. "We respect privacy and always keep that at the forefront, but at the same time we need to make sure we do our job in keeping U.S. citizens safe."
Trevino...did not say how often officials open mail for security reasons.
~An e-mail friend from Old Europe observes: "The funny thing about this is that if you replace "terrorism" with "fascism" then you get basically the motivation why East German authorities used to open letters to their citizens, sent from abroad."
[Cieciel] If they open my letters and packages sent from relatives overseas, does that mean they're 'fighting' me?
What a burden our gov't officials have taken on: anyone receiving mail from beyond America's borders might be a terrorist!
I wonder how many Americans now work at jobs in which it's necessary to assume everyone (but your bosses?) and/or everything you'll be looking at on the job is a potential terrorist or terrorism device? I hope they're getting paid more than minimum wage.
[illus. not from above]