U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program …
The program photographs and captures an image of every piece of mail
that is processed,
“ It’s a treasure trove of information,” said James J. Wedick a former F.B.I. agent who spent 34 years at the agency and who said he used mail covers in a number of investigations, including one that led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California on corruption
charges. “Looking at just the outside of letters and other mail, I can see who you bank with, who you communicate with — all kinds of useful information that gives investigators leads that they can then follow up on with a subpoena. But, he said: “It can be easily abused because it’s so easy to use and you don’t have to go through a judge to get the information. You just fill out a form.” …Law enforcement officials need warrants to open the mail, although President George W. Bush asserted in a signing statement in 2007 that the federal government had the authority to open mail without warrants in emergencies or in foreign intelligence cases.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?_r=0
