JOHN KIRIAKOU: Neither Rain, Sleet, nor Snow Will Stop the Post Office From
Spying on You
February 28, 2019
It's called the "Mail Cover Program" and it's run by the U.S. Postal Service
(USPS). Yes, even the Post Office is spying on us, writes John Kiriakou.
By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News
You may remember that last year some nut was arrested for mailing bombs to
prominent Democrats, media outlets, and opponents of Donald Trump. Less than
a week after the bombs went out, a suspect was arrested. Almost immediately,
video turned up of him at a Trump rally, wearing a "Make America Great
Again" hate and chanting for the camera. He was soon tried, convicted, and
jailed. End of story.
But it wasn't the end of the story. The investigation into the bomb
incidents focused attention on an almost unknown federal surveillance
program-one that poses a direct threat to the privacy and constitutional
rights of every American. It's called the "Mail Cover Program" and it's run
by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Yes, even the Post Office is spying on
us.
The Mail Cover Program allows postal employees to photograph and send to
federal law enforcement organizations (FBI, DHS, Secret Service, etc.) the
front and back of every piece of mail the Post Office processes. It also
retains the information digitally and provides it to any government agency
that wants it-without a warrant.
"We also spy on you." (Wikimedia Commons)
In 2015, the USPS Inspector General issued a report saying that, "Agencies
must demonstrate a reasonable basis for requesting mail covers, send hard
copies of request forms to the Criminal Investigative Service Center for
processing, and treat mail covers as restricted and confidential.A mail
cover should not be used as a routine investigative tool. Insufficient
controls over the mail cover program could hinder the Postal Inspection
Service's ability to conduct effective investigations, lead to public
concerns over privacy of mail, and harm the Postal Service's brand."
Return to Sender
Not only were the admonitions ignored, the mail cover program actually
expanded after the report's release. Indeed, in the months after that report
was issued, there were 6,000 requests for mail cover collection. Only 10
were rejected, according to the Feb. 2019 edition of Prison Legal News
(P.34-35) .
I have some personal experience with the Mail Cover Program. I served 23
months in prison for blowing the whistle on the CIA's illegal torture
program. After having been locked up for two months, I decided to commission
a card from a very artistically-inclined prisoner for my wife's 40th
birthday. I sent it about two weeks early, but she never received it.
Finally, about four months later, the card was delivered back to me with a
yellow "Return to Sender - Address Not Known" sticker on it. But underneath
that sticker was a second yellow sticker. That one read, "Do Not Deliver.
Hold For Supervisor. Cover Program."
Why was I under Postal Service Surveillance? I have no idea. I had had my
day in court. The case was over. But remember, the Postal Service doesn't
have to answer to anybody - my attorneys, my judge, even its own Inspector
General. It doesn't need a warrant to spy on me (or my family) and it
doesn't have to answer even to a member of Congress who might inquire as to
why the spying was happening in the first place.
The problem is not just the sinister nature of a government agency (or
quasi-government agency) spying on individuals with no probable cause or due
process, although those are serious problems. It's that the program is
handled so poorly and so haphazardly that in some cases surveillance was
initiated against individuals for no apparent law enforcement reason and
that surveillance was initiated by Postal Service employees not even
authorized to do so. Again, there is no recourse because the people under
surveillance don't even know that any of this is happening.
Perhaps an even more disturbing aspect of the program is the fact that
between 2000 and 2012, the Postal Service initiated an average of 8,000 mail
cover requests per year. But in 2013, that number jumped to 49,000. Why?
Nobody knows and the Postal Service doesn't have to say.
The question, though, is not how many cases are opened under the Mail Cover
Program or even how many requests there are for the information. The real
question is, "How is this constitutional?" Perhaps a secondary question is,
"Why hasn't anybody challenged the program in the courts?" In general,
Americans don't-or at least haven't-objected to a gradual loss of civil
liberties and constitutional rights. That has to stop. When even the Post
Office is spying on you, you know the republic is in trouble.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior
investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the
sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage
Act-a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a
result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.
