Washington to hire millions of domestic ‘spies’

The US government is aiming to recruit millions of US citizens as domestic informants, it was reported today.

The Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS) means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than East Germany had with its infamous Stasi secret police, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

The programme would use a minimum of 4% of Americans to report on ‘‘suspicious activity’’.

Civil liberties groups have warned that there is the potential for abusive, large scale investigations of US citizens.

TIPS is being pursued by the Justice Department as part of the war against terrorism.

Highlighting the scope of the surveillance network, TIPS volunteers are being recruited mostly from among those whose work provides access to homes, businesses or transport systems.

Postal workers, utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors are among those named as targeted recruits.

A pilot programme is scheduled to start next month in 10 cities, with one million informants participating in the first stage.

Assuming the programme is initiated in the 10 largest US cities, that will be one million informants for a total population of almost 24 million, or one in 24 people.