Some TIPS for John Ashcroft

Remember the movie The Cable Guy? It's the one where Jim Carrey plays a cable-TV repairman who only wants to help, yet he unwittingly sets out to ruin the life of one of his customers. That story could be coming to a reality near you.

That's right. The government wants your cable guy, meter reader, even your postman to voluntarily report any and all suspicious information about you to a new, central FBI database. It's called Operation TIPS, short for the Terrorism Information & Prevention System. The goal is to give millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, and utility employees a formal way to report suspicious activity.

A pilot phase, slated to begin later this summer, would initially recruit 1 million workers in 10 cities. The Teamsters Union has already signed on. The U.S. Postal Service, which originally said its 800,000 workers would not participate, is also encouraging its workforce to join.

SOWING SUSPICION. The idea is the brainchild of Attorney General John Ashcroft. But like many of Ashcroft's salvos in the war on terrorism, Operation TIPS will more than likely reduce privacy without increasing security. Let's be real: Terrorists with half a brain aren't likely to be outsmarted by the mailman or open the door to have the gas meter read if they have bomb-making material nearby.

But ordinary people, who might be reading the Koran, will. The result could be a flood of unsubstantiated and largely irrelevant tips that overwhelm law-enforcement officials already mired in data. Worst of all, the program could sow the seeds of suspicion among loyal American citizens.

Privacy-protection advocates allege that Operation TIPS is simply a way for the FBI to get into people's homes without a warrant. Before the police or FBI can search your residence, they need probable cause and an order from a judge. But you let the cable guy into your home voluntarily. And once you do that, you relinquish certain rights of privacy. Whatever the cable guy sees is fair game.