First wiretapping, now letter-opening?

FIRST WIRETAPPING, NOW LETTER-OPENING?
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] The Bush administration seems determined to raise the specter of surveillance over every means of communication within the United States. Not content to monitor selected phone calls and e-mails in secret, it recently hinted that letters and packages may be opened without a search warrant too. Befuddled, some privacy advocates started asking why the White House felt compelled to assert these surveillance powers when the issue wasn't even on the table. Was Bush trying to provide cover for another secret monitoring program? Was he laying the groundwork for a new one? Was he prodding balky government agents into being more aggressive on mail searches? It's hard not to be suspicious of the president's position on mail privacy, given the administration's record on the issue of domestic surveillance. In the name of the "war on terror," it has taken an unusually expansive view of government power and a correspondingly restrictive view of individual privacy rights. It also has sought to redefine what constitutes a "reasonable" search, and has often done so unilaterally and in secret. The administration may indeed be up to nothing new when it comes to mail — and that's not the least bit comforting.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-ed-mail08jan08,1,4427988.story?coll=la-news-a_section
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