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Federal Government Plans Terrorist Tipster Program

The program would encourage utility workers and letter carriers to report unusual activities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) -- The U.S. government is organizing a program to encourage millions of Americans -- including utility workers and letter carriers -- to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and to report anything unusual.

Operation TIPS, Terrorism Information and Prevention System, is being developed by the Justice Department, according to a notice on the department's Web site.

Justice spokesman Charles Miller said the program is still under development. He referred questions to another official who did not immediately return calls.

The planned program drew a prompt rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The administration apparently wants to implement a program that will turn local cable or gas or electrical technicians into government-sanctioned peeping toms," Rachel King, an ACLU legislative counsel, said in a statement.

The ACLU said it worried that these volunteers would, in effect, be searching people's homes without a warrant, that resources would be wasted on a flood of useless tips and that the program would encourage vigilantism and racial profiling.

The planned operation is a part of the Citizen Corps, an initiative announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address, designed to enable the public to participate directly in homeland security.

According to the Citizen Corps Web site, Operation TIPS will give "millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity."

The project is initially planned to begin in August in 10 cities, to be selected.

Participants are to be workers whose jobs give them routine access to neighborhoods, businesses and homes and thus are in a position to report anything unusual to a toll-free phone number.

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