{"id":461727,"date":"2021-04-29T13:35:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T17:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=461727"},"modified":"2021-04-29T13:35:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T17:35:54","slug":"usps-admits-to-monitoring-americans-social-media-via-covert-operations-program-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/usps-admits-to-monitoring-americans-social-media-via-covert-operations-program-report\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS Admits To Monitoring Americans\u2019 Social Media Via \u2018Covert Operations Program\u2019: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fusps-admits-to-monitoring-americans-social-media-via-covert-operations-program-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=461727&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-4088.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>On Wednesday, a U.S. Postal Service official reportedly admitted that its Internet Covert Operations Program (ICOP) has been quietly monitoring Americans by tracking and collating social media posts, including about a March 20 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/picture-gallery\/news\/local\/arizona\/2021\/03\/20\/photos-trump-supporters-gather-world-wide-rally-freedom\/4784079001\/\">rally<\/a> that protested against COVID lockdowns called the World Wide Rally for Freedom and Democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA number of groups were expected to gather in cities around the globe on March 20 as part of a World Wide Rally for Freedom and Democracy, to protest everything from lockdown measures to 5G,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/the-postal-service-is-running-a-running-a-covert-operations-program-that-monitors-americans-social-media-posts-160022919.html\">Yahoo News<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale appeared \u201cwildly unprepared for this briefing,\u201d said Representative Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who serves on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and met with Barksdale Wednesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9522303\/USPS-admits-spying-Americans-monitoring-social-media-wont-reveal-details.html\">reported<\/a> The Daily Mail.<\/p>\n<p>Fox Businesses reports that \u201ca spokesperson for South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace confirmed that Barksdale said during the briefing that USPS analysts search through social media posts, which is said to be part of a cover mission known as iCOP.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mace, The Daily Mail reported, \u201crevealed that Barksdale claims iCOP isn\u2019t a real \u2018program\u2019 at USPS because it\u2019s \u2018incident-related\u2019 not an ongoing matter, but the social media operation is being overseen by an \u2018executive.\u2019 Barksdale also said he doesn\u2019t know how much money is being allocated for the spying initiative, Mace said, and would not say during the briefing which agencies are coordinating with USPS.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A March 16 government bulletin listed as \u201claw enforcement sensitive\u201d and distributed through the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s fusion centers, stated:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"11\">\n<p><em>Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021. Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cParler users have commented about their intent to use the rallies to engage in violence. Image 3 on the right is a screenshot from Parler indicating two users discussing the event as an opportunity to engage in a \u2018fight\u2019 and to \u2018do serious damage,\u2019\u201d the bulletin continued, adding, \u201cNo intelligence is available to suggest the legitimacy of these threats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bulletin, distributed through the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s fusion centers, includes screenshots of posts from Facebook, Parler, Telegram and other social media sites about the protests,\u201d Yahoo News\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Postal Inspection Service previously issued a statement to Yahoo News saying, \u201cThe U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the primary law enforcement, crime prevention, and security arm of the U.S. Postal Service. As such, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has federal law enforcement officers, Postal Inspectors, who enforce approximately 200 federal laws to achieve the agency\u2019s mission: protect the U.S. Postal Service and its employees, infrastructure, and customers; enforce the laws that defend the nation\u2019s mail system from illegal or dangerous use; and ensure public trust in the mail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Internet Covert Operations Program is a function within the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which assesses threats to Postal Service employees and its infrastructure by monitoring publicly available open source information,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdditionally, the Inspection Service collaborates with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to proactively identify and assess potential threats to the Postal Service, its employees and customers, and its overall mail processing and transportation network,\u201d the statement added. \u201cIn order to preserve operational effectiveness, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service does not discuss its protocols, investigative methods, or tools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, a U.S. Postal Service official reportedly admitted that its Internet Covert Operations Program (ICOP) has been quietly monitoring Americans by tracking and collating social media posts, including about &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277010,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-4088.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"USPS Admits To Monitoring Americans\u2019 Social Media Via \u2018Covert Operations Program\u2019: Report","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-4088.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"USPS Admits To Monitoring Americans\u2019 Social Media Via \u2018Covert Operations Program\u2019: Report","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}