Inspector General Says Post Office Used iCOP Surveillance Program to Illegally Spy on Social Media Users

Why did the US government use the postal service to monitor what Americans post on social media?

The law enforcement arm of the US Postal Service secretly monitored and collected Americans’ social media posts, according to documents previously obtained by Yahoo News.

The spying program is known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program and involved goons trolling through social media sites to look for “inflammatory” posts – and then sharing the information with other government agencies.

Last we checked, “inflammatory” language was covered by the First Amendment.

“iCOP analysts are currently monitoring these social media channels for any potential threats stemming from the scheduled protests and will disseminate intelligence updates as needed,” the bulletin posted last year said.

The bulletin mentioned the “Stop the Steal” rally and included screenshots from an alleged member of the Proud Boys, but iCOP conceded that none of the posts contained anything threatening.

The bulletin didn’t mention anything about Antifa or BLM terrorists.

It turns out the post office used the program to illegally spy on Americans.

An inspector general investigation concluded the Post Office illegally used iCOP to spy on social media users.

Yahoo News reported:

An inspector general probe into the U.S. Postal Service surveillance program, known as iCOP, concluded that the agency did not have the legal authority to conduct the sweeping intelligence collection and surveillance of American protesters and others between 2018 and 2021.

The Postal Service Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into iCOP — which stands for Internet Covert Operations Program — at the request of Congress in direct response to reporting from Yahoo News last year.

“We determined that certain proactive searches iCOP conducted using an open-source intelligence tool from February to April 2021 exceeded the Postal Inspection Service’s law enforcement authority,” the March 25, 2022, inspector general report stated.

Using sophisticated technology and software, iCOP was running keyword searches like “protest” on social media to collect online speech about a host of different events that contained no threats and had nothing to do with the Postal Service’s work.

The inspector general report notes that in April 2021 Postal Inspection Service lawyers asked iCOP to remove “protest” from its keyword searches “to protect constitutional rights.”

Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, told Yahoo News that the Postal Inspection Service had “lost their way.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/03/inspector-general-says-post-office-used-icop-surveillance-program-illegally-spy-social-media-users/

Granholm: We Have to ‘Use’ War to Move to Clean Energy, Before War, Many of Us Hoped We’d Focus ‘Solely on Clean Energy’

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that many hoped “we would be focusing solely on clean energy solutions, renewable, making that transition,” but the war in Ukraine has thrown a wrench into that and said that “we have got to use this reason to become energy independent with clean energy.”

Host Chris Hayes said that he would probably take a similar approach to President Joe Biden because people need gas to get around and gas price increases harm people, but “At the same time, it just seems so depressingly insane that we are here in 2022 and it’s like, let’s drill baby, drill, let’s get more oil on those markets, this is the solution. And it’s like it’s always the next cigarette is the one we’re going to give up, but for now, we need to buy another carton. Why should I not be depressed by this?”

Granholm responded, “I totally get it, Chris, believe me. I think a lot of us came into this hoping that we would be focusing solely on clean energy solutions, renewable, making that transition, but we didn’t anticipate that Vladimir Putin would wage war on Ukraine and cause these markets to go out of control. And so, that’s why the president said this is a two-step solution. One is, let’s increase supply right now because we’re on a wartime footing. And we want to reduce people’s pain at the pump and safeguard them against this incredible volatility. But second, we have got to use this reason to become energy independent with clean energy. We don’t want to be relying upon fossil fuel markets that are incredibly volatile or from countries that don’t have our interests at heart. So, ultimately, the best solution is to go clean.”

She continued, “And that’s why the second part of what he announced was invoking the Defense Production Act to help increase the building of batteries for electric vehicles in the United States. He also referred to the Weatherization Assistance Program, which — we released $3.2 billion to the states to make sure that people don’t use as much energy as they are right now because their homes may be leaky. We want to invest in renewables. We want to invest in the technologies that decarbonize the fossil fuel industry. And that’s why this second part, to become energy independent with clean energy, is the medium-to-long-term strategy.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/03/31/granholm-we-have-to-use-war-to-move-to-clean-energy-before-war-many-of-us-hoped-wed-focus-solely-on-clean-energy/

Never Trump Candidate Seen Allegedly Illegally Forging Petition Signatures In Parking Lot In Effort To Run Against Elise Stefanik

A never-Trump Republican in New York can be seen allegedly illegally forging petition signatures in a parking lot in his effort to challenge New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a video obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller shows.

Lonny Koons, who is trying to primary Stefanik in NY21, can be seen in his car in videos that were taken at the Ticonderoga Walmart Parking lot on March 24. The day the two videos were filmed he said on social media that he was in Ticonderoga and “obtained a healthy number of petition signatures.” However, the signatures appeared to have been faked and signed by Koons himself.

In the videos, posted on YouTube by an anonymous account called “North Country Watch,” Koons can be seen signing a number of signatures and names on a document in the parking lot, on the same day he said he was collecting signatures in Ticonderoga. The petition filing period starts April 4. Republicans need a minimum of 1,250 signatures to appear on the ballot.

On March 12th, Koons posted a letter on Facebook that he sent to the Working Families Party of New York. In the letter, he states that he is “primarying Ms. Elise Stefanik for the republican nomination” and goes on to ask why the Working Families Party is representing him as a supporter of former President Donald Trump.

The Working Families Party is a far-left socialist political organization that stands for Defunding the Police, the Green New Deal and Medicare for all.

The organization which Koons founded, Blue Collar Politics, has also been vocal in supporting a “True ‘Green’ Movement“, “Universal Healthcare for All“, and “police reform.”

The Daily Caller spoke to state officials who said they were shocked by the videos and said Koons was committing a felony.

Dutchess County Republican Elections Commissioner Erik Haight told the Caller, “I watched the video several times. Honestly, in disbelief. It’s shockingly brazen. It’s such a violation of the public’s trust to be forging voter’s signatures on an official document that eventually is going to be filed with the government entity, the State Board of Elections. And he’s perpetrating a fraud on the electoral system. Frankly, if this candidate files those petitions, he should be prosecuted to the greatest extent of the law and it is a felony, and every time he affixes someone else’s signature to his petition.”

“It’s a crime,” said Haight. “And frankly, if he does file these fraudulent petitions, he’s playing with fire and people have been imprisoned for that crime,” Haight continued.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/31/never-trump-candidate-lonny-koons-allegedly-forging-petition-signatures-against-elise-stefanik/

Part 2 vid https://youtu.be/Ku2QqzXtosc