Homeland Security opening private mail

[dogday]

WASHINGTON - In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded with a colleague in the Philippines he never had any reason to suspect that their friendship was anything but spectacularly ordinary.

But now he believes that the relationship has somehow sparked the interest of the Department of Homeland Security and led the agency to place him under surveillance.

Last month Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words “by Border Protection” and carrying the official Homeland Security seal.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10740935/

[Turbineguy]

1. I used to work for a company

that opened private mail.

They did a few other things I disagreed with too.

They went bankrupt.

[Poppyseedman]

3. You are correct

Almost all companies have a right to open mail that comes in the door. Even personal mail. It's called CYA.

The company I ran did and when mail come into the building addressed to an employee rather than the company, I normally pulled that person aside and explained to them all mail is opened by my secretary and if your want your correspondence to remain private, have it sent to your home address. The next one will be opened.

In the age of email, snail mail is the best way to cover your ass if you are doing something nefarious.

Believe me all sort of crap goes on. Office love triangles, Stealing, Sensitive company information being sold, etc, etc.

[Turbineguy]

5. Ah..... perhaps I should explain

this was mail sent to me while I was on board ships. This was not mail I could have gotten at home as I was not at home to receive it. In a normal situation it would be unsual for a person to get a letter from his wife at work.

Other companies (who btw are still in business) did not open mail destined for ships' crew members.

[Poppyseedman]

6. On board a ship and they opened your mail???

That's crap. I'm glad they went out of business.

[AndreiX]

4. Hooray for 1984!

Police states tickle!

[Poppyseedman]

2. Interesting

Goodman is no stranger to mail snooping; as an officer during World War II he was responsible for reading all outgoing mail of the men in his command and censoring any passages that might provide clues as to his unit’s position. “But we didn’t do it as clumsily as they’ve done it, I can tell you that,” Goodman noted, with no small amount of irony in his voice. “Isn’t it funny that this doesn’t appear to be any kind of surreptitious effort here,” he said.

He seems more concerned they didn't try to hide the fact they were snooping than the fact they were opening his mail