# U.S. Recruiting Vast Pool of Snitches **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 16, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277 "2002-07-16T19:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277/1 "2002-07-16T19:11:17Z")
[Oh yeah, here’s a link.](http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/realtime/fullstory_print.html&cf=tgam/realtime/config-neutral&articleDate=20020716&slug=wratt0716&date=20020716&archive=RTGAM&site=Front) > [@](#): > > The Bush administration is hoping to recruit one million potential informants by next month for the first stage of a counterterrorism measure that has civil-liberties advocates appalled. > > In time, as many as 4 per cent of Americans could be spying on their neighbours, a proportion that would exceed even the network set up by the former East Germany’s notorious Stasi spy-service. This beggars belief. Will people sit still for this? Are they _trying_ to confirm the most paranoid conspiracy theorists’ babbling? When Robert Anton Wilson wrote, in 1975, that “…the Illuminati will have the American people under tighter surveillance than Hitler had the Germans. And the beauty of it is, the majority of the Americans will have been so frightened by Illuminati-backed terrorist incidents that they will beg to be controlled as a masochist begs for the whip,” he was joking, right? It was _parody_, wasn’t it? [Snazzy website, though.](http://www.citizencorps.gov/tips.html) If anyone wants me, I’ll be in the basement, hoarding supplies and ammunition for when the balloon goes up. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277/2 "2002-07-16T19:15:20Z")
**Taking notes…** **Larry Mudd** , in the basement… hoarding supplies and ammunition… Hmmmmmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277/3 "2002-07-16T19:31:10Z")
Am I allowed to say that I’m moving my chair a few more inches northward now? ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277/4 "2002-07-16T20:12:54Z")
I don’t blame you, man. God. I let that laughable “compromise” over stem cell research pass. I learned to despise him after the “common sense that this is a nation under God” comment. Now I fucking hate George W. Bush. hate hate hate hate hate hate Ugh. I can only hope that he’ll get routed out of the office come 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277/5 "2002-07-17T04:39:02Z")
Well, **Larry** , I believe it was Umberto Eco who said good parody says with a nod and a wink what will be said in dead earnest twenty years later. Robert A. Wilson is very good parody. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277/6 "2002-07-17T04:59:30Z")
I’m watching this thread as well. Love, Seven “TIPS” Graylands ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-recruiting-vast-pool-of-snitches/119277/7 "2002-07-17T12:50:07Z")
"Oh, my name it is Sam Hall, it is Sam Hall . . . "