Most Americans at this point know that the federal government tracks the internet activity of Americans to a certain extent.
However, the true extent to which the government is surveilling your activity is nothing short of alarming.
And Matt Gaetz’s latest proposal has the Deep State in a full-blown panic.
The federal government will use every tool at its disposable to keep an eye on even law-abiding Americans
Following the bombshell Edward Snowden leaks, the American public became aware of the fact that the federal government is keeping a very close eye on the internet activity of American citizens.
However, few Americans realize just how deep and widespread these spying programs really go.
Recently it was revealed that the United States Postal Service conducts an operation known as the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP), which is operated by the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
Critics of the Internet Covert Operations Program claim that the program illegally tracks and stores the personal information of American citizens without a warrant.
As a result, Rep. Matt Gaetz has introduced a bill in the House known as the “USPIS Surveillance Protection Act”, which is designed to fight back against this alleged spying.
More specifically the bill claims that the USPS operates “an illegal domestic surveillance program operated by the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).” Furthermore, the bill “would prohibit any federal funds, including amounts available in the Postal Service Fund, from being used by USPIS to carry out iCOP, or any other similar program.”
Following the introduction of this bill, Rep. Gaetz released a statement saying “The Postal Service should be focused on delivering the mail on time and on budget, not running a covert surveillance program to monitor political behavior on social media.
He added, “This program is not only outside USPIS’ jurisdiction and infringes on American citizens’ civil liberties but is more evidence of the government-sanctioned spying on its own citizens. Congress must immediately abolish this program.”
A long way from hand-written communications and “letter-locking”
In response, the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General claimed “A core component of this program is the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP), established in 2018 to provide analytics support for online investigations. Analysts respond to requests for assistance from postal inspectors and proactively gather intelligence using cryptocurrency analysis, open-source intelligence, and social media analysis. In April 2021, iCOP was renamed the Analytics Team.”
As Rep. Gaetz points out, this program oversteps the boundaries of United States Postal Service workers, whose primary functions are to deliver mail.
This invasive program is yet another example of how bloated the federal government has become, at the expense of taxpayers.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates on this ongoing story.
