'I'm happy to spy for America'

An army of volunteers is lining up behind President George W Bush in his attempt to build an American "home guard" against terror, ignoring the protests of civil liberties groups who have criticised the plan as granting the state a licence to snoop.

Postal workers, doormen, television company "cable guys", delivery truck drivers and local shopkeepers are being recruited to become the "eyes and ears" of American domestic security - and they are showing overwhelming enthusiasm for the scheme, called Operation Tips (Terrorism Information and Prevention System).

Tips starts next month as Justice Department officials begin recruiting a million Americans for the initial pilot programme in the country's 10 largest cities.

The Justice Department has said that it wants to recruit workers whose "routines are ideally suited to help in the anti-terrorism effort because they allow them to recognise unusual events".

A national telephone hotline and a network of intelligence "reporting centres" are being set up for the scheme.

Officials are currently on their way to the 10 target cities to set up training centres. Recruits will be given lectures on what to look for and how to report suspicious persons, activities and objects.

Each delivery vehicle on an Operation Tips fleet will be issued a bumper sticker advertising a free phone number to encourage other members of the public to join in.

The plan has divided America, drawing fierce criticism from liberals and civil liberties movements.

Opponents have calculated that Operation Tips will create one "spy" for every 24 citizens, a ratio that critics point out is higher than that of the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany.

Many liberal commentators have drawn parallels with the climate of fear and suspicion during the McCarthy purges of suspected Communists and Soviet sympathisers in the 1950s.

Dennis Kucinich, a leading Ohio Democrat on the Congressional National Security Oversight Committee, denounced the scheme, arguing that it would transform America from "an information society to an informant society".