This month the Justice department plans to recruit 1 million Americans in 10 pilot cities to act as citizen spies. A couple of weeks ago the Justice Department announced its new plan for the so-called “war on terror”: “Operation TIPS”, the Terrorism Information and Prevention System. It aims to recruit millions of workers with access to private homes-such as FedEx delivery people, mail carriers, and gas meter readers-as well as truck drivers, train conductors and ship captains-to report what they think is “suspicious activity.”

Teamsters president James Hoffa announced publicly that the Teamsters supported the plan, and that the 500,000 Teamster truck drivers would be “the eyes and ears of the Homeland Security office.” But the US Postal service immediately issued a statement saying its 300,000-some postal workers had not signed on.

Yesterday the online magazine salon.com discovered that the department of justice is forwarding incoming Operation TIPS calls to the Fox-owned “America’s Most Wanted” television series.

Guest:

• William Smith, president of the New York Metro Postal Workers Union.