Mail Tracking

NYT Saturday Blog 1 of 3:

The F.B.I. would gain broad authority to track the mail of people in terror investigations under a Bush administration proposal, officials said Friday, but the Postal Service is already raising privacy concerns about the plan.

The proposal, to be considered next week in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would allow the bureau to direct postal inspectors to turn over the names, addresses and all other material appearing on the outside of letters sent to or from people connected to foreign intelligence investigations.

Ok, hold on. You mean to tell me the FBI currently doesn't have access to "names, addresses, and all other material appearing on the outside of letters..." in terror investigations? This is insanity! How could this even be?

I suppose it would go some lengths to explain why the mailed Anthrax terror attacks have been shelved. Either that, or the explanation [that it likely came from within the US, by US citizens, and that particular strain of anthrax is specific to the US military and one or two highly locked down research facilities, and therefore, all aarows point to ... suppression of evidence and permanent backburnering of investigation].