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Suspicious Packages Spotlight Vast 'Mail Cover' Postal Surveillance System (fastcompany.com)
tedlistens writes: As law enforcement investigates possible mail bombs sent to prominent Democratic Party figures and liberal activists, the tools available at their disposal include digital images and delivery metadata commonly associated with mail sent in the United States. The U.S. Postal Service regularly photographs the front and back of every piece of U.S. mail, or about 150 billion parcels, envelopes, and postcards every year. A longstanding practice known as the "mail cover" program enables law enforcement to obtain address information and images of the outsides of mail as part of an investigation without the need for a warrant through the Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service's policing arm.
According to a report from CBS News, authorities are currently using "data analytics" to spot similar packages to those identified as containing bombs. Images of packages shared with the press show a common return address, using the misspelled name of Representative and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Postal Inspection Service doesn't generally comment on its investigative techniques. As part of the mail cover program, mail is routinely digitally photographed as part of the sorting process and even available for recipients to digitally preview in some areas. Apart from threats like bombs, the department says its main focus is on mail theft, fraud, and narcotics cases.
According to a report from CBS News, authorities are currently using "data analytics" to spot similar packages to those identified as containing bombs. Images of packages shared with the press show a common return address, using the misspelled name of Representative and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Postal Inspection Service doesn't generally comment on its investigative techniques. As part of the mail cover program, mail is routinely digitally photographed as part of the sorting process and even available for recipients to digitally preview in some areas. Apart from threats like bombs, the department says its main focus is on mail theft, fraud, and narcotics cases.
What, you thought metadata collection only applied to digital communication?
It's called Informed Delivery. They email you images of what's arriving that day.
https://informeddelivery.usps....
My wife signed up for it, it's sort of creepy and exciting (at first).
I would assume they image everything (at least letter sized) as part of sorting.
BlameBillCosby.com
The postal service offers "Informed Delivery" where you can see your mail before you pick it up. From their web site: "Digitally preview your mail and manage your packages scheduled to arrive soon! Informed Delivery allows you to view greyscale images of the exterior, address side of letter-sized mailpieces and track packages in one convenient location."
Go to informeddelivery.usps.com
Select "Sign Up For Free."
My address is not available for this service...what are they hiding?
Also none of these packages shown have ever been in the postal system, or any other tracking system. They would have to have been placed in various mailrooms by hand.
Surprising nobody, the person sending bombs to Democratic politicians, supporters, and media organizations is a virulently pro-Trump terrorist.
His van is covered in pro-Trump stickers, along with stickers of Democrats with gun targets on their faces.
The coverings of the terrorist's van refer to Trump's stated enemy list as well as memes shared by right wing republicans nationwide.
Is it too much to ask that Trump stop encouraging his supporters to violently attack reporters and Democrats?
Amazing, they are the only one who cannot find or track my packages but at least the photograph both sides of every letter.
The arrested bomber's van is covered in pro-Trump stickers, and violent memes spread by republicans nationwide, like a gun target painted on a picture of Hillary Clinton.
You may apologize now.
Trump should apologize for encouraging domestic terrorism.
And also, they are in plain manilla envelopes, not shipping envelopes.
Go get a regular yellow envelope, put a "thing" in it, like an old ethernet card or whatever. Try to handle the envelope without it ripping.
Anyways
COOL CLOCK CESAR!!!!!
Interesting, I thought it was generally available for letter mail.
And what are they hiding? They probably don't want to tip you off of their awareness of your untoward and tawdry mail contents...
Maybe it's only in urban areas, but they have to scan everything anyway for sorting purposes.
BlameBillCosby.com
All of the photos of the packages show absolutely no post marks, barcodes, cancelled postage.. Nothing.
So they say they were delivered by courier.. But couriers wont take packages with postage on them, and again.. .No shipping labels, no barcode.
So they say they were hand delivered. This guy drove up and down the coast and delivered all the packages within a few hours of each other?
How the fuck is this supposed to work.
Should I believe this goofball had a whole team working with him?
They said one package couldnt be delivered, so it was sent back to the return address.. And yet, NO FUCKING POSTMARKS ON THE PACKAGE.
None of the packages shown have ever been in the USPS system, nor Fedex, UPS, etc, etc..
What the fuck?
A little common sense reveals your hoax claim to be ridiculous.
If what you say is true, the USPS and FBI have to be in on this plot. Do you think two organizations of that size could keep this quiet if it was a hoax. Not everyone at USPS or FBI is vehemently anti-republican so this would leak. Use common sense before you post nonsense.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
LOL - And the democrats who are actually encouraging civil unrest and violence even after a republican was shot at a baseball game? I don't recall any apologies there.
And honestly, earlier this month "Suspected Ricin sent to Pentagon, suspicious letters to Trump, Ted Cruz office"
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u...
How did the media respond to this? Well the New York times publishes a fictional article about the secret service and Russians assassinating Trump
You will notice all the people sent ones were promoting violence against Republicans.
Biden - I want to punch Trump
Clinton - You can't be civil
DeNero - I want to punch Trump
Booker - Get in their face
Waters - Attack them
Obama - They bring a knife you bring a gun
Holder - They go low kick them
and on and on...
Every last person who got one was promoting violence on others. When it comes to them NOW its bad?
You will notice Pelosi and Schumer were not targeted, neither of them were promoting violence against others. You will excuse me for not caring, especially after last week being told by multiple /.ers that violence against GOP and supporters was acceptable and to be encouraged (rsilvergun, PopeRatzo specifically)
If you understand how OCR scanning works, you'd know they *have* to image the envelope, look for something that vaguely looks like an address (in various positions, orientations, etc), parse it, then route it through the sorting machines, etc all within seconds. It makes sense to store those images for training the software (wait until you find out that google stores your "ok google" requests, especially ones that it can't understand and sends them off to folks who manually listen and try to discern what the fuck you're asking for, etc.. and I'm not surprised if law enforcement can get at those records.
It's a nice service, but in the email that they send me, every day, without fail, there is exactly one "mailpiece for which we don't currently have an image"
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
The other thing that I notice from this system is that mail from the UK is frequently scanned upside down.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
All of the photos of the packages show absolutely no post marks, barcodes, cancelled postage.. ... blather deleted ... ]
[
None of the packages shown have ever been in the USPS system, nor Fedex, UPS, etc, etc..
What the fuck?
The fuck is that you're an uninformed idiot.
From Fact Check: 'Canceled Stamp' Conspiracy (a conservative opinion site, BTW):
Lastly, the premise that if a stamp is not canceled it was therefore not mailed through the USPS is incorrect. As the executive director of the American Philatelic Society, Scott English, tells TWS Fact Check, “It is possible for mail to go through the mail without being cancelled by the USPS. There are still hand-stamped packages and in other cases, a postal clerk will use a magic marker to draw a line through stamps. There is no standard throughout the country.”
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
The arrested bomber's van is covered in pro-Trump stickers, and violent memes spread by republicans nationwide, like a gun target painted on a picture of Hillary Clinton.
Right. Just like any stealthy terrorist would do, lol
"There's a flag, so it can't be a false flag"
You may apologize now.
For what, wondering about yet another bizarre 11th hour thing happening?
Trump should apologize for encouraging domestic terrorism.
Which he has not encouraged. So, no.
Strange, because democrats were doing this for years. Until Giffords got shot, then it was a political faux pas all of a sudden.
When a republican puts violent right wing memes spread by Trump and prominent republicans into action they deserve the blame.
No power no peace! - Hillary Clinton
Get up in their faces wherever they are. - Maxine Waters
When they go low, we kick them while they're down. - Eric Holder
Violence against patriots is collateral damage. - Nancy Polosi
Need more marching, blood and death in the streets - Loretta Lynch
And I'm only getting started. I'm also sure you think "violent rightwing memes" include pepe the frog, and the current NPC meme. But don't see calling peoples as nazi's, racists, fascists, white supremacists, race traitors, misogynists, and so on as a problem either.
Om, nomnomnom...
The USPS is just pretending to be incompetent to cover up their vast and efficient data collection. Think about it!
Nut: The government is spying on our mail!
Normal Person: The same people that delivered my mail to the house around the corner, and gave me mail for someone who moved 10 years ago? No way!
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Surprising nobody, the person sending bombs to Democratic
They were not bombs - they were joke bombs. Fake Blews, as it were.
If you want to look to people trying to do actual harm to opponents, there you will have to look for the insane left as opposed to the insane right (like the baseball field shooting).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nazis want to exterminate all jews. I think it's fair game to punch them. Why show them any civility?
All of the photos of the packages show absolutely no post marks, barcodes, cancelled postage..
[ ... blather deleted ... ]
None of the packages shown have ever been in the USPS system, nor Fedex, UPS, etc, etc..
What the fuck?
The fuck is that you're an uninformed idiot.
From Fact Check: 'Canceled Stamp' Conspiracy (a conservative opinion site, BTW):
Lastly, the premise that if a stamp is not canceled it was therefore not mailed through the USPS is incorrect. As the executive director of the American Philatelic Society, Scott English, tells TWS Fact Check, “It is possible for mail to go through the mail without being cancelled by the USPS. There are still hand-stamped packages and in other cases, a postal clerk will use a magic marker to draw a line through stamps. There is no standard throughout the country.”
You're a retard. That's simply stating that sometimes there's a fuckup and the worker PHYSICALLY MISSES when cancelling or FORGETS to cancel.
Do you actually believe that somehow happened for all of these packages, at every point along the delivery?
Damn, STICKERS? They got him! We've NEVER seen anyone try to frame shit up as being done by someone else! Certainly not the DNC!!!
It's called Informed Delivery. They email you images of what's arriving that day.
https://informeddelivery.usps....
My wife signed up for it, it's sort of creepy and exciting (at first).
I would assume they image everything (at least letter sized) as part of sorting.
I expect that this what Netflix uses to speed up delivery of DVDs. I regularly drop a DVD in the mail and Netflix will send out the next one in my queue well before the returning DVD will have made it to their wharehouse. So on one hand creepy, on the other hand faster turn around time for their service.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
I didn't say anything about "every USPS and FBI employee" being in on a plot.
A little more common sense would tell you they are all federal employees and legally bound not to disclose what happens at their workplaces.
So why not address what I actually said? You wont. You glow in the dark.
They would have to be in on the plot because any USPS worker could see what you saw and announce it. And the FBI, something as big as that would have to be quite extensively spread.
For this to be a hoax you would literally have to have the entire USPS onboard not to announce the "no stamping thing" and out it as a hoax... and probably dozens of FBI agents. Like most conspiracy theories- you'd have to be nuts to believe it.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Those were examples. The operative phrase was, "It is possible for mail to go through the mail without being cancelled by the USPS." More to the point, I have actually received stamped mail that has no cancellation marks. Furthermore, the reports are that the packages, or majority, were courier / hand delivered. Don't really know why you're so cranked up, unless you're a crank that believes the conspiracy nonsense.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
It used to be the case that Nazis wanted to (and more importantly, actively worked towards) exterminating all the jews...
Now the definition of a Nazi has shifted to include.... pretty much whoever you want to punch...
For example: a bay area antifa group published a "most wanted" poster labeled "Know your Nazi". Their stretched definition of "Nazi" included figures such as Joey Gibson, a conservative agitator who publicly denounces white supremacists. Antifa sources consider Gibson guilty by association because white supremacists regularly show up at his rallies.
Can you explain why it should be acceptable to punch someone like Joey Gibson?
Show me on the 1st Amendment bobblehead where the moderator touched you...
It goes deeper than that--
the post office reads the address on every piece of mail!
and they KNOW where YOU LIVE!
Best to just not have an address so they can't FIND you!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Democrats don't share pictures of republicans with gun targets on their face.
They have done so many times.
What Democrats also do apparently is try to buy radioactive substances after telling at Republicans... instead of sending joke bombs that are not a threat.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nope, that's just making things up. (This seems like typical Russian troll stuff.) Hillary Clinton violated policy in her email handling, but the investigation concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to make a case that she committed a crime. And the crime would have been about records retention, not classified info anyway. Any mishandling of classified info would have been done by her subordinates by moving material to a non-secure medium, regardless of if the email account was a state department one or not. You are just parroting made-up stuff.
This van looks like what Steve Bannon would turn into if he was a Transformer
- Twitter
Is there any anti-Democrat conspiracy theory you WON'T believe? I used to think tin-foil hatters were just an exaggerated joke, but your posts are doing a great job convincing me otherwise. You better tighten that thing up another notch.
It is reasonable to ask pertinent questions and expect to receive pertinent answers for a matter of this importance.
"If you don't believe the prevailing media narrative unquestioningly you must be a ridiculous conspiracy theorist" is an answer only an NPC could accept.
No bombs sent to Democrats even got close to them, or went off...
Unlike the bomb locally delivered to a GOP office.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Does it happen to be a bulk mail thing? Since those are presorted, perhaps they don't go through the scanner.
As for couriers, nope. They generally won't take shit with postage
There exists a courier business that picks up and drops off US mail for business clients at the local post office. I see them all the time. They show up with a plastic tub full of mail and walk it up to the commercial service window. And they have keys to a half dozen PO Boxes to pick up clients' mail.
It's possible that Sayoc hired one of these people to drop packages off. Hence the reference to a courier. And I imagine that postal workers drop their guard when they see the same guy they do every day hauling in a bunch of packages. "Sure Bob. Just pile them up in the corner and we'll get to them when we can."
Have gnu, will travel.
Did you see the van with the back windows platered over with stickers?
That van would not get a block before being pulled over and over and over again.
You seriously underestimate the amount of crazy shit that exists on a day to day basis in Florida.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
>instead of sending joke bombs that are not a threat.
You're so desperate to make this man seem like less of a nutjob that this is the line of thinking you're going with huh. Do I get to sit in a sniper's nest with a fake rifle on Capitol Hill or political rally because it's a "joke rifle" and "not a threat"?
You may be right. I had always read it as "one mail piece", but perhaps it should be read as "at least one".
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Hillary Clinton violated policy in her email handling, but the investigation concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to make a case that she committed a crime.
Now you're making things up. Quotes from Comey's statement:
"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." Also: "Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."
That latter statement is not "she's innocent" or "there's no evidence", it's a pretty clear "there is evidence" and "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case." He's right, no prosecutor is going to waste the time and effort to counter every legal maneuver that Clinton's team would make to try to avoid a guilty verdict. And nobody wants to take down the golden girl who "won the election" (if only the rules for how to win the election were different!)
"NPC"? Is that supposed to be some insult to dehumanize victims to make it OK to send them bombs?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
They caught the guy. Florida man. He's one of you right loonies. Doesn't surprise me one bit that after evidence that you are wrong surfaced you changed the troll rather than admit you were wrong.
Democrats do spread the "Punch a Nazi" meme.
How many people have you Nazis killed by now?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
The packages weren't postmarked when they were photographed on camera and released in news stories: they never went through the postal service.
Why does who you advocate copulating with warrant discussion here?
I hadn't seen that Snoop Dogg video until just now.
So, on the one hand you've got a rapper famous for smoking marijuana and saying stuff like "For shizzle" making a video where everyone appears in clown makeup and a toy gun that "fires" a tiny sign that says "Bang" is used to shoot a "Trump" clown and on the other hand we've got the actual President of the United States calling the press the "enemy of the people" and saying it's "unfortunate" that people expect him to have a coherent response to Khashoggi's murder.
Trump has called for police to rough up suspects and for his followers to attack those who don't support him at his rallies. He even tweeted that Snoop Dogg deserves "jail time" for exercising his First Amendment rights.
He literally said that anyone who can body-slam a reporter is "my kind of guy". That's a guy who plead guilty to a violent crime.
No wonder Snoop doesn't share his joint with the clown in his video.
"False equivalency" and "snowflake" are a couple of things that come to mind.
Joey Gibson invites groups like Identity Evropa to his rallies. White supremacists flock to him.
He surrounds himself with The Proud Boys.
I don't think it's all that extreme to think he's lying when he says he's not a White Supremacist.
The crapflooding has gotten really weird around here.
Yeah, I've found Informed Delivery handy, particularly when watching out for a particular letter. Also, it's occasionally handy for adding a bit more debugging data for delivery snags. E.g., I live at 999 E Bargle-bargle Lane, and regularly find mail destined for 999 W Bargle-bargle Lane in my mailbox. The fact that it also shows up in my Informed Delivery emailing tells me that the problem is with USPS routing software, not with my local mailbeing. The misrouted mails generally appear to have WEST spelled out, so that may be relevant to the glitch. There seems to be no way to communicate this to whoever maintains the routing software, but I've told enough of my local mailbeings about it that they sometimes catch it and locally reroute. I get the impression that the USPS has no way for local mailbeings to communicate such routing bugs upward, though. One other nifty feature is that packages sent to me generally show up in the package side of the ID page, even if the sender didn't pay for a tracking number. I've seen the occasional "mailpiece for which we don't currently have an image", but I've noticed that they usually seem to be things like magazines. Local flyers, coupons, etc, though, never show up in ID, only first-class mail and packages.