USPS admits it IS spying on Americans: Law enforcement arm is snooping on social media posts...

Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale briefed lawmakers on the Oversight Committee regarding the program known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, but could not provide a date for when it was initiated.

iCOP? Seriously?

The inspector was called for a briefing after iCOP was first made public in a report last week.
Yahoo obtained and published documents related to iCOP, which includes an operation where analysts page through social media sites to look for 'inflammatory' posts, including messages about planned protests.

In short, analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) through the iCOP program monitor Facebook, Parler, Telegram and "other social media websites" taking screenshots, with identifiable information, then create bulletins which are distributed through Homeland Security to law enforcement.

Of note is that no one knows when iCOP started, how long it has been running, or how much money is being allocated to it. Also of note is that supposedly no arrests have been made and the Chief Postal Inspector won't reveal which agencies the USPS is coordinating with. Additionally...

Rep. Mace, who serves on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, revealed that Barksdale claims iCOP isn't a real 'program' at USPS because it's 'incident-related' not an ongoing matter, but the social media operation is being overseen by an 'executive.'

What!? Not a real program? Then what is it? Answer...

The Internet Covert Operations Program is a function within the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which assesses threats to Postal Service employees and its infrastructure by monitoring publicly available open source information...

Sounds like a real program to me. It even has a name with the word "program" in it.

The whole thing is shrouded in mystery and no one knows jack-squat. Is this why the postal service in this country has become a money- pit? They claim to have lost 2.2 billion dollars in revenue during the second quarter of 2020 due to covid, but then they always have an excuse for needing to raise prices again and again. It seems to me the reason is clear. They've become just another arm of the alphabet agencies in this country under the guise of being a postal service.

Is ATS one of the social media sites being monitored?

Read the article for yourself and share your thoughts below.

Just like Democrat IRS 🤣🤣

Almost makes you wonder if it's because they've had a history with this kind of directive before.

Have they kept tabs on written word amongst citizens before?

Kind of weird for this to be the "agency" to carry this out. Especially given that they're funded differently than other government entities. I can't imagine that they have a staff substantial enough to really make a difference in this space.

Then again, I'm immune to surprise. Maybe the USPS has some super sophisticated communication surveillance system... Would be fitting for one uping the bizarreness recently.

a reply to: Klassified


If this is like any other part of their operations, they don’t know what the hell they are doing.
Believe me, I worked for the USPS.

a reply to: Klassified

Aside from the hilarious program title and the use of the word "covert" which I don't think even the Clowns In America are that stupid, err, wait nvm. But, Yahoo of all news outlets is the first on the scoop? Seriously.

a reply to: EndtheMadnessNow

But, Yahoo of all news outlets is the first on the scoop? Seriously.

Or maybe they were supposed to be "first on the scoop". A "covert" way of breaking it to the public.

originally posted by: RazorV66
a reply to: Klassified


If this is like any other part of their operations, they don’t know what the hell they are doing.
Believe me, I worked for the USPS.

Maybe that's why they brought in an "executive" to oversee the program.

a reply to: Klassified
Sure makes ya wonder who bought the site eh?

originally posted by: BlueJacket
a reply to: Klassified
Sure makes ya wonder who bought the site eh?

Yes it does.

I find this situation funny.
A. The gov started Facebook and probably every social media site.
See lifelog...the DARPA Facebook-like sm platform that Congress shut down THE SAME DAY Facebook was established as "a private company"
B. The usps special investigations team was the ones investigating mail in ballot fraud, so the hit piece is pretty suspicious.

I think that, given the obvious concerns that are emerging about the infestation of white nationalists within the DOJ and DHS, this administration might've seen itself limited in its investigative options; the postal service being [perhaps] overlooked by Trump's people and their aggressive efforts to "affect" the capacity of every other law enforcement and/or investigative agency over the last 4 years.

Let's face it, with so many political and administrative positions littered with strategically positioned Trump loyalists, who could the Biden Admin turn to for any degree of honest or dependable insight into what the Trump street teamers are up to now.

The next autocrat won't overlook the postal system's investigative function when they work to cripple our ability to ferret out the damage they've left behind, but this time, they blew it.

Not that we'll be so easily fooled - next time - by what seems more like ineptitude than a malignant intent.

I wish the postal service would identify who is sending us so much junk mail and turn them in to law enforcement. Especially the political junk mail sent by political interest groups looking for campaign contributions.

originally posted by: RazorV66
a reply to: Klassified


If this is like any other part of their operations, they don’t know what the hell they are doing.
Believe me, I worked for the USPS.

They may or may not know what they are doing, but they sure have the power to alter society. Remember back in the early 1990s when they got new computerized machines to sort the mail? But they had to institute a new way to abbreviate states names. Two capital letters instead of the way they had always been abbreviated. It was supposed to be only for the computer's benefit, but see how readily everyone adopted the new two letter abbreviations? Everybody falls all over themselves to use two letters now instead of actually spelling out, say "Illinois," or abbreviating it "Ill." I'd be curious to know how do you write state names now? Spell it out properly, or use the (sometimes incomprehensible) two letter abbreviations?

I forget.... Does "MI" stand for Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota or Mississippi? That shouldn't cause any confusion, should it?

I worked for the USPS also.

a reply to: NorEaster

I think that, given the obvious concerns that are emerging about the infestation of white nationalists within the DOJ and DHS...

I'd really like to read whatever material you have on this, because I would never have guessed it going by the actions of these two agencies alone. If it's true, they have certainly kept a low profile, since their actions appear to favor the left rather than the right.

Let's face it, with so many political and administrative positions littered with strategically positioned Trump loyalists...

Here again, you couldn't prove it by appearances, but as with any president, I'm sure Trump appointed those who were conservative, just as any democrat president would appoint those who are progressive.

Your post was an interesting take on this.

a reply to: NorEaster

Let's face it, with so many political and administrative positions littered with strategically positioned Trump loyalists, who could the Biden Admin turn to for any degree of honest or dependable insight into what the Trump street teamers are up to now.

ha
so now trump has loyalists in key positions in the alpha bit agencies.

talk about a whataboutism opportunity!

so i'll go first, that's the same as obama's left over people. you know the whistle blowers that were always leaking something.

a reply to: Klassified


Lee Smith Nails It Again, The US Postal Service Surveillance Scandal is Targeting Trump Supporters Not All Americans

Journalist Lee Smith hits the sweet spot in his discussion of the U.S. Postal Service conducting surveillance on Americans. As Smith notes the targeting is not to identify the political ideology of “all Americans”, rather the objective is surveillance of people who likely did not vote for Joe Biden.

Again it is important to repeat, this type of activity is one long continuum. The IRS was previously used; federal contractors for the FBI have previously been used; allied Big Tech companies have been used; and now the United States Postal Service is running a covert surveillance program against Americans that sounds suspiciously like the prior DHS announcement.

Around the interwebs lately has been a number of articles about USPS openly assisting CIA in tracking everyone's social media, mail, etc..

They can't efficiently deliver mail, how accurate are they with spying on you? Regardless, Ed Snowden was not joking about mass surveillance on everyone, at anytime, all the time.
Edward Snowden: “The NSA Are Tracking This Call RIGHT NOW”

a reply to: EndtheMadnessNow
It wouldn't surprise me if all ATS members are on a "watch list", or that it's aimed squarely at the conservative minded as well as any democrats who aren't far enough left.

The meme...

Now we know why and to whom ATS was sold.

/s (....kind of....)

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
a reply to: NorEaster

Let's face it, with so many political and administrative positions littered with strategically positioned Trump loyalists, who could the Biden Admin turn to for any degree of honest or dependable insight into what the Trump street teamers are up to now.

ha
so now trump has loyalists in key positions in the alpha bit agencies.

talk about a whataboutism opportunity!

so i'll go first, that's the same as obama's left over people. you know the whistle blowers that were always leaking something.

I agree. It's no sin to appoint your own people to whatever Executive Branch agency you want when you become the POTUS. And most of the people that Trump brought in are likely as normal and contributive as those brought in by previous admins. That said, this hasn't been a normal transition, and not by a long shot.

The issue in this situation is that the January 6th Capital attack happened, and there are still a lot of questions over why the Executive Branch didn't immediately respond to the attack as it was ongoing. There's still an investigation into why it took hours for help to arrive and why even Pence couldn't get the Guard unit that was sitting on a bus for hours to respond. The long, drawn-out brown-out at the Pentagon in direct response to frantic calls from the Capital Police, even as everyone in the country was watching the attack live on TV, suggests that there was a real serious problem in the DoD at that point in time. So, where else could there be problems like that?

It's not hard to understand that any effort to keep track of those people who might still be out there and wanting to continue that illegal effort to reinstall Trump as president through force, by combing social media accounts, could rationally be seen as particularly vulnerable to anyone within that investigative effort [or who has an inside line on what's up in that investigation] who is sympathetic to what those pro-Trump activists could still be focused on achieving. It doesn't take much imagination to see the potential for leaks or worse if one or more of the agents involved in that investigative/monitoring effort have the same loyalties [to enabling Trump's reinstatement] as the people that they are supposed to be investigating or monitoring. Leaks are bad, but we're talking about sedition and insurrection here. That's as bad as it can get.

I would think that until they can sort out exactly what the situation is that they've got within the ranks of the DOJ and especially the DHS, they won't feel free to share any of what they feel they have to do to shut down those sorts of insurrection-centric activities with anyone from those departments; well, below the political appointee level anyway.

This "Stop the Steal" thing is still ongoing. Look at what they're doing in Arizona with that weird recount. That's not happening in a vacuum.