"A" letter is a free service of Bob Bauman's, ex Senator, on the international issues of Americans~and more!

Date:   5/27/2005 10:27:52 AM ( 19 y ago)

Dear A-Letter Reader:
Federal Express is famous for its overnight deliveries, and
now it may have become, overnight, the one delivery company
to avoid at all costs -- if you value your personal and
financial privacy.

A front page Wall Street Journal feature article (5/26) details
how FedEx voluntarily has become a willing partner to the US
federal police establishment, turning over names, addresses,
credit card information and lists of when and where FedEx
customers send and receive packages.

Mind you, this is done under the guise of 'fighting terrorism,'
since FedEx management decided soon after the 9-11 terror attacks
that it would cooperate with almost any government information
request. In the past FedEx and most other delivery companies
insisted on a valid search warrant or court order before
surrendering customer information. UPS says it still follows
that traditional rule.

But FedEx has gone further, granting US Customs inspectors
access to the company's database of international shipments,
including names and address of shippers, package origin and
destination, credit card information and payment details
(names of banks), all things the US government is not
entitled to outside of a criminal investigation. 'Our guys
just love it,' says one senior Customs official overseeing
inspections at international courier companies.

I'll just bet they do love it -- and you can also be sure
that the FBI and other police do not confine their use of
all this information to terrorism investigations. It is
well known that PATRIOT Act powers, supposedly aimed at
suspected terrorists, have been used to nab phone solicitors,
nightclubs in Las Vegas, CD-counterfeiters, even a call girl
ring in New Orleans. Now FedEx has opened a whole new universe
of people for eager government snoops.

This is a replay, for much bigger stakes, of what the IRS
did four years ago with credit cards issued by offshore
banks, alleged to be used to evade taxes. Because VISA,
MasterCard and AmEx processed the offshore card charges in
US facilities, the IRS got court orders to grab millions of
card transactions without the names attached. Only AmEx
stood up for card holder privacy and the others caved in to
the IRS. About a thousand people out of what the IRS claimed
were millions fessed up during a phony IRS amnesty.

At least the credit card companies, however misguided, were
co-operating in investigations of a specific alleged crime.
FedEx, on the hand, is laying wide open customers for no better
reason than their flag waving management wants to do so.

What makes all this even more horrific (and illegal) is that
these demands for information often are based on nothing more
than government bureaucrats accusations, not on due process
search warrants or any other judicial review.

One of the current FedEx slogans is 'Where the business of
shipping gets done.' Just change 'shipping' to 'snooping' --
and plan accordingly.

That's the way it looks from here.
Bob Bauman, Editor

PS: If you do business with an offshore bank account in a
nation that has ironclad financial privacy laws, you wont
have to worry about FedEx or other sell-out companies. Click
here for privacy - http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/SVS/WSVSF528/



 

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