Has DHS Opened Your Mail Yet? They Did Mine

By: Devvy
July 14, 2014
NewsWithViews.com

Several years ago, I made my usual trek to the post office. One of the little cards was in my PO box letting me know I had a package to pick up. The lady at the counter handed me the box and off I went to my vehicle. When I went to put the box on the front seat, I was shocked to see a big orange piece of tape with a label that read: Opened by U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

What was in the box? Several books I ordered from Amazon for my research. When I got home and opened the box, all I saw was the books and copy of the ordering invoice, but boy was I PO’d. I called a friend of mine who is an attorney and he said if it ever happens again, let him know and he will sue on my behalf.

By what authority does that monstrous, massive waste of money called the Department of Fatherland (aka Homeland) Security have to open my mail? The deliberately named, spit in our faces, “Patriot” Act. It is one of the most draconian pieces of legislation ever passed and signed into law by lawbreakers - the Outlaw Congress and George Bush, Jr (October 26, 2001):

Amendment IV: Searches, Seizures and Warrants (Post 9/11)

“As discussed earlier, the Patriot Act includes provisions such as the “Sneak and Peak” clause that permits police to enter and search a person’s home with a secret search warrant and without informing the person for months afterwards. Then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft gave legitimacy to these “black bag jobs,” which were a throwback to former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Also under the “Sneak and Peak” provision, the FBI, with a warrant, can secretly enter a person’s home and plant a “Magic Lantern” on the computer. These devices (also known as the keystone logger) are almost impossible to detect and, once installed, create a record of every time a key is pressed on the computer. This record can then be recovered by the FBI during their next break-in. These “legal” break-ins and uses of “Magic Lanterns” are not limited to terrorists but are used in regular criminal investigations of American citizens as well.

“Police raids of American homes have greatly increased. Often the police even fail to knock and announce their presence before breaking down doors. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that evidence found by police officers who enter a home to execute a search warrant without first following the requirement to “knock and announce” can be used at trial, despite that constitutional violation. And cities and towns across America are installing 24-hour surveillance cameras that watch your every move, making it possible for the government to “search” you anytime you’re in public and to track, document and record your movements— who you meet with and where you go. There are obvious parallels between these developments and the general search warrant exercised by the British during the colonial period, which was so despised by Americans.

“Under the USA Patriot Act, the FBI initially could obtain a warrant from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which allowed the FBI to secure lists of books borrowed and bought by patrons from libraries and bookstores. The librarian or bookstore owner was prohibited from informing anyone, including the person whose privacy had been breached, that such a search had occurred. A much lower standard of proof than the normal “probable cause” was initially required for such searches. It has now been further reduced to having to be “relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Read More Here