Federal Express, The Feds and The End User, that's you, if still so inclined

A

alan

New member
Should reference to Rick Stanley be off putting, the following originated elsewhere, and it seems was written about in The Wall Street Journal, which usually is pretty level headed.

Re If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear, a thought sometimes heard, that idea never held water for me. Does it for you? As to this Soverign Society Off shore, their name is new to me. Had you heard of it?


We the People Scoop 05/27/05 ** Special Edition **
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WE THE PEOPLE SCOOP - TO EXPOSE! **
** Visit the website: http://www.stanley2002.org **
** Like the Scoop? Forward it to everyone you know! **
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OPINION RELEASE: Where the Business of Snooping Gets Done. A-Letter. 05.27.


Subject: Where the Business of Snooping Gets Done. A-Letter. 05.27.05.


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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
Friday, May 27, 2005 - Vol. 7 No. 107

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COMMENT: Where the Business of Snooping Gets Done.

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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COMMENT LINKS:
* US Government finds a surprising ally: FedEx.
LINK: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05146/510879.stm
* IRS Credit Card Scare in 2002.
LINK: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,50025,00.html
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WEALTH:

* SOME AMERICANS ARE CONCERNED

"A frightening prospect for Americans; an unfettered national
police force with the sole discretion to determine who can be
investigated as a potential terrorist. That's the impact of
little-known proposals to greatly expand the powers of the FBI,
permitting its agents to seize business records without a warrant
and to track the mail of those in terrorist inquiries without
regard to Postal Service concerns.'

* Voice from the hinterlands; FBI powers become fearsome.

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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland
TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561
All contents COPYRIGHT (C) 2005 by Sovereign Society Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction of all or part of this document in any form is prohibited without express written consent of Sovereign Society. Protected by US copyright laws 17 USC 101 et seq., 18 USC 2319; violations punishable by 5 years imprisonment and/or $250,000 in fines.
 
tyme asked:


"Okay, so is Airborne decent?"

Frankly, I haven't the proverbial clue, however they weren't mentioned in the article I posted a copy of, which by the bye did NOT come from Rick Stanley, whose name seems to raise the hackles of some.

Might I suggest that you inquire of the source, THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
Friday, May 27, 2005 - Vol. 7 No. 107, which was indicated in the text. They might be able to clarify.
 
Fed-Ex is still in for me. They have yet to leave electronics sitting on my porch while it is raining, and a signature was required.

If I don't want the feds to know I'm upgrading my computer yet again, UPS. If I actually want undamaged parts to upgrade my comp, Fed-Ex is the way to go.
 
The allegations made in that letter sound like something that people just make up to make people upset. There are no references or evidence given.
 
I heard something about it on the news. And the part about the FBI searching your records or even your house without judicial review, is something I have heard Republican and Democrat congressmen repeat and complain about often. The FBI can write their own warrants and no judge will see if there is probable cause for it. Lets face it, if J. Edgar Hoover was still in charge, he would use this to find all sorts of embarrasing stuff about us. "If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear"....riiiiggght. You may have nothing illegal to hide (that is if you know all of the laws well enough that you won't break some out of ignorance or confusion) but almost all of us have something personal that we do not want strangers to know and the government to keep records of.

And besides, it is the principle of it that some of us were brought up on that our privacy is sacricant and it goes back to the days when English soldiers searched us whenever and however they wanted.
 
Ohio Annie wrote the following:

"The allegations made in that letter sound like something that people just make up to make people upset. There are no references or evidence given."

Might it be that you are one of the legion of people that are turned off at the mere mention of Rick Stanley? I would NOT presume to argue that particular point with you or anyone else, however respecting what you wrote, I do believe that the following question(s) is/are entirely reasonable, not to mention appropriate.

Within the article, which by the bye was NOT qwritten by Mr. Stanley, he merely picked it up and posted it, for whatever reason(s) he might have, there was a reference to an article in the Wall Street Journal of 26 May. Did you trouble to read that article.

Additionally, there was a link to a recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. To read that article, all you had to do was to click on the blue link. Did you? Me thinks that you might not have. By the way, re what you posted, the first part is simply your opinion, something that you are certainly entitled to. The second part is flat wrong.

Once again, did you read the material at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette link? Did you read the Wall Street Journal article mentioned in the text? If not, why not? Please do so, and then, if so inclined, get back to me.

Best.
 
While I have no idea of their firearm policies, in terms of service and performance, Airborne has been great for us.

However, it still is mostly a B2B carrier in many places, so service to residential areas maybe limited.
 
As a general rule, personal data held by third parties does not enjoy privacy protection except you lawyer and physician.
No court order is needed for the police to demand a bank, FedEx, UPS, etc. show data they have related to you and your accounts and use of services.
This is nothing new.
 
No court order is needed for the police to demand a bank, FedEx, UPS, etc. show data they have related to you and your accounts and use of services.
Click to expand...
Maybe, but a court order or warrant is needed if the companies, or FedEx, refuses to release them in order to protect their customers privacy. At least before the Patriot Act was passed. Apparently, we are all potential terrorists and even our homes are subject to a search without the FBI having to show probable cause.
 
"At least before the Patriot Act was passed. "

The Patriot Act had no change in this area since it was not required. Data held by third parties s restricted from public disclosure, but the LE (including attorney generals, police, FBI, etc) are not public.
No bank or company is going to go to court to protect you (or your information). They know they will loose.
 
What about non profit organizations? Or the public library? I remember there being something in the news about the Patriot Act now allowing the feds to access our library records to see what books we borrowed. I also remember organizations like NORML that would refuse to ever give the government information about their members and would fight it fully.

(this is not a challenge and I am just asking for your perspective on these laws :) )
 
The Patriot act codified access to certain records. Some groups (librarians) have been more resistant all along to police access by simply refusing to open the records. Since most are official actors at one level or another (city, county, state) they have a better legal standing since the Attorney General who would be suing for access also represents the library.
Businesses are there to make money, not to defend third party rights and typically just comply with the ‘request’. They have to pay an attorney out of pocket and see no benefit accrue to themselves, just a hole in the bottom line.
 
Ohio Annie wrote:

I don't know who Rick Stanley is. Obviously some of you like picking fights and being rude.

Rick Stanley has described himself, as memory serves, as a Libertarian. Others have described him in other terms. In any case, as I noted previously, Mr. Stanley did NOT create the material I posted. He came upon it, or was told about it by others, and for reasons of his own, posted it. I copied it for reasons previously stated, they being that I thought it might prove interesting.

Re your original question, I called your attention a link to an article appearing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Also referenced was an article in the Wall Street Journal, which is a much better paper than the Post-Gazette.

If you go to the above sources, I believe that your questions might be answered. Have you gotten there, notwithstanding what you described as my liking to pick fights, and being rude?
 
"Big Brother is watching you" George Orwell, 1984.

"What good fortune for government that the people do not think." Adolf Hitler.

Paul B.
 
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