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Cato Daily Dispatch for October 25, 2001

You've Got ... Anthrax

U.S. Postal Service officials said yesterday that they could not guarantee the safety of the mail but that they had no plans to suspend deliveries and were taking steps to reduce the risk that anthrax or other potentially deadly agents could be spread across the country through the postal system, The Washington Post reports.

As early as today, the Postal Service will begin trucking some mail to private firms in the Washington and New York areas that are equipped with technology that can kill anthrax spores by spraying them with electrons, officials said. They said they hoped to have similar technology installed in many postal facilities within two months.

In "Securing the Postal Front," Edward L. Hudgins, director of regulatory studies and editor of the Cato book "Mail @ the Millennium," gives an overview of how the Anthrax scare is affecting the mail and explains that private companies, and not the government monopoly, "are in the forefront of postal security."

Passenger Takes Gun Aboard Plane

According to The Washington Post, a Southwest Airlines passenger flying Tuesday from New Orleans to Phoenix opened his briefcase and realized that he had something he shouldn't have had: a loaded gun.

Officials said the man alerted the flight crew and he was not charged with a crime. But the incident illustrates that airport security remains unreliable.

Law-enforcement officers can't be everywhere, but an armed, trained citizenry can be. That's why pilots, flight attendants and even trained passengers should be allowed to carry arms on board aircraft if they want to, says Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies Robert Levy in "Invitation To Terror: This Plane Is A Gun-Free Zone."

Terrorism Bill Explained

Fox News has compiled an easy to read outline of the vastly expanded powers the House of Representatives voted to grant to law enforcement. It is available online.

Among other things, the bill increases to seven days the length of time an alien may be held before being charged with criminal or immigration violations and requires an integrated automated fingerprint identification system for points of entry and overseas consular posts.

Congress has passed terrorism bills granting vast powers to law enforcement that have nothing to do with counter-terrorism, argues Cato adjunct scholar David Kopel in "Will the War Kill the Bill of Rights?"

In "Watching You: Systematic Federal Surveillance of Ordinary Americans," Boise State University Economics Professor Charlotte Twight explains in detail how the federal government maintains databases on every citizen's financial, medical, employment, and education records, making the point that the government's surveillance powers are already extensive.