Inspector General: USPS Illegal spying program ran for three years. It was aimed at Black Lives Matter protestors.
By Jana Winter, Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON — An inspector general probe into the U.S. Postal Service surveillance program, known as iCOP, concluded that the agency did not have the legal authority to conduct the sweeping intelligence collection and surveillance of American protesters and others between 2018 and 2021.
The Postal Service Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into iCOP — which stands for Internet Covert Operations Program — at the request of Congress in direct response to reporting from Yahoo News last year.
“We determined that certain proactive searches iCOP conducted using an open-source intelligence tool from February to April 2021 exceeded the Postal Inspection Service’s law enforcement authority,” the March 25, 2022, inspector general report stated.
“Furthermore, we could not corroborate whether other work analysts completed from October 2018 through June 2021 was legally authorized.”
Recent Posts
‘We Cannot Stand Silent’: Sheinbaum to Seek Criminal Charges Over ICE Detention Deaths
Take Action Now “We cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died,” said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.By Jake Johnson, Common…
Israel Is Deliberately Targeting Lebanon’s Journalists
Take Action Now The list of civilians deliberately killed by Israel in Lebanon includes journalists trying to report on the invasion. The Union of…
In a Divided Country, U.S. Residents Agree on One Thing: No Data Centers
Take Action Now Across the country, in cities and rural areas, locals are pushing elected officials to introduce data center regulations and pause…
Why Israel Fears a U.S.-Iran Rapprochement Far More Than Conflict
Take Action Now The same policies that sought to guarantee Israel’s survival may now be undermining its futureBy Paul Rogers, Open Democracy The…