Department of Homeland Security opens Kansas professor’s mail

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The Progressive reports that Grant Goodman, an 81-year-old professor emeritus of Asian history at the University of Kansas, writes regularly to his colleague, a former professor history at the University of the Philippines. Last month, Goodman received from his friend a letter that had already been “Opened by Border Protection,” and which displayed the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The other professor, also in her 80’s, according to Goodman, “hasn’t written about anything in years.”

Goodman, who was very upset by the government’s opening his private correspondence, was also surprised by the crudeness of the letter-opening. The letter had been slashed open and then secured with heavy green tape. Unlike other prying government agencies, Homeland Security wants you to know it is watching you.

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