Plan likened to Cold War paranoia

BRATTLEBORO -- Likening a new program to recruit 1 million citizen informants to Soviet-style repression, Sen. Patrick Leahy, said Tuesday he will have some tough questions for Justice Department leaders spearheading the effort.
"I find it kind of scary," Leahy told the Reformer Tuesday about the little-known Operations TIPS, the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, which is set to launch next month.

According to a government Web site, TIPS "will be a nationwide program giving millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity."

"We used to laugh at the old Soviet Union idea where everybody reported everybody else," said Leahy. " ... We don't need to have it happen here. "

The Vermont Democrat, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will challenge Attorney General John Ashcroft on the need for TIPS when Ashcroft appears before the committee next week.

Federal officials are releasing little information about the program. But the Web site, www.citizencorps.gov, indicates Citizen Corps is a component of the president's USA Freedom Corps program introduced by Bush in his State of the Union address in January that called on Americans to donate 4,000 hours of volunteer time.

"Citizen Corps creates opportunities for individuals to volunteer to help communities bring together a network of volunteers and first responders at the local levels," Debbie Garrett, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, told the Reformer Tuesday.

One of the five parts of the Department of Justice Program includes Operations TIPS, which the Washington Times described Tuesday as "a national reporting pilot program scheduled to start next month in 10 cities, with 1 million informants -- or nearly 4 percent of Americans -- initially participating in the program."