Customs Service opens more incoming mail since terrorist attacks

By Randolph E. Schmid

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Foreign mail coming to the United States is getting a closer look since the anthrax mailings, and more letters are being opened by Customs agents.

While the practice is legal, it is raising questions on privacy grounds.

It’s understandable that the government would want to look closer at anything entering the country, said Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at the University of Florida.

“But one hopes that the government exhibits some balance between the desire to enhance security and the personal privacy of those using the mail,” he said. “That a letter crosses an international border doesn’t mean that its contents become less private.”

Foreign mail entering the United States must be cleared by the Customs Service before it goes to the U.S. Postal Service for delivery.

Customs spokesman Dean Boyd said that since Sept. 11 the agency has conducted “enhanced operations” at all ports of entry, including mail arrival points. That means more inspections of incoming people, goods and cargo, as well as mail, he said.

The increase “certainly does raise privacy questions,” said Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s a further sign that this has been a period when our liberty is being compromised and for no apparent benefit.”

Once first-class mail is in the U.S. Postal Service system it cannot be opened without a court order, Postal Inspector Dan Mihalko said. The law specifically gives Customs agents authority to investigate incoming items that it feels may be suspicious.

Slobogin suggested that inspections “taking place now are not based on reasonable cause but rather are random or perhaps are based on something as minimal as the return address on the envelope.”

Boyd said that items are not opened “willy-nilly” but only when there is a reasonable suspicion that an envelope contains something more than merely a letter, he said. “We look for anomalies,” he said.

In recent years, agents have noted a sharp increase in mailings of the drug Ecstasy from Europe, leading to more attention in that area.

Boyd was reluctant to specify any particular part of the world, noting that contraband can be mailed to the United States via third countries to allay suspicion.

He said that if inspectors open mail, they reseal it with tape bearing a Customs mark. Mail also can be inspected with X-rays or checked by dogs.

Boyd could not provide a percentage increase for the amount of mail being opened.

Besides the hijacked-airliner attacks, wariness about the mail has been fueled by anthrax-laced mail found last fall in Florida, New York and Washington. Five people died from anthrax and several others were sickened.

While those letters apparently originated inside the United States, they have focused attention on the security of all mail.

Mail addressed to federal agencies is being irradiated to kill any biological threat. The Postal Service is buying additional radiation equipment and evaluating other technologies to screen the mail.

Stamp collectors have reported that some shipments in registered mail from foreign countries appeared to have been opened, then resealed, according to the collectors’ newspaper, Linn’s Stamp News.

Linn’s quoted Joe Rivera, chief Customs inspector at New York’s Kennedy Airport, as saying that since the terrorist attacks, the percentage of mail being opened from Europe, the Middle East and Asia has jumped sharply.

Rick Miller, a reporter for Linn’s, said he received one of the opened items, which had been resealed with wide packaging tape.

Miller wasn’t angry. “If they’re looking for anthrax,” he said, “I’d rather them find it than me.”