If the government feels the need to track every citizen does that mean there looking at all of us as possible terrorist? Technology provides the government with both public and private information. This is a dysfunction created by the United States which is the spying on American citizens. Although some may feel it’s a violation there are some situations that violate no one’s rights. Police are able to use technology freely in public spaces, in which people have no expectation of privacy.
We see this issue arising with the introduction of the Patriot Act after 9/11. Much debate has occurred concerning the issues of privacy related to the Patriot Act. Unlike the privacy issue in the book, everyone is monitored; where as the Patriot Act allows law enforcement to spy on an individual that might be a threat to national security. The second issue is that of government interaction. The
provokes these actions. American filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki, in his documentary, “Why We Fight,” addresses the topic of military industrial complex and argues that the government abuses its power and manipulates Americans about foreign policies and their intentions abroad. He supports this argument by interviewing many government and military personnel and addresses wrongful military actions and weaponry in other countries. Many of the military personnel repeatedly mentioned that orders they disagreed with were part of the job and had to be done. They also agreed that corruption was a huge issue in both legislative and executive branches of government.
It not only eerily resembles Orwell’s creation of “Big Brother”, but it also happens to be a massive waste of government resources and has shown very limited upside. For the good of the general public, the National Security Agency should not have access to domestic metadata on the grounds that it has acted unconstitutionally, unethically, and ineffectively. The NSA has secretly, yet deliberately, overstepped its constitutional boundaries. Under the Patriot Act and FISA warrants, the NSA has received judicial permission to pursue metadata avenues in hopes of foiling domestic terrorist attacks. Each time the agency desires to track an individual, it needs to file a request with FISA and a warrant can only be granted if there is reasonable suspicion.
This website would release their private information that citizens never even knew about. Although it allows us to know what our government is doing, he questions if this new technology will “be a form of tyranny or will it free us from tyranny?”(32) In other words, singer questions if this website will strengthen our nation and democracy. He goes on by discussing the things people keep private and how they are constantly changing. New information is continuously coming about and changing, which people need to know about. Privacy is the state or condition of being free from observation and disturbance from other people.
The Patriot Act alone makes it allowable to search and seize US citizen’s papers and effects without probable cause, “to assist in a terror investigation” (CCAPA, 2003). Using this, the NSA and other government agencies have been collecting phone records, personal records, internet usage habits, and other meta data of innocents without their knowledge (Kopczynski, 2013). The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit in court challenging the interpretation of the Patriot Act as a violation of Americans’ constitutional rights. The Patriot Act expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects (Lichtblau, 2003). This has opened the door for the NDAA which seemingly gave the government oversight of your everyday lives.
However, they also admit “mismanagement at multiple levels” and inflating the importance of some information gained through torture. Whether you agree with George W. Bush that torture is an effective way to protect your country or with Senator McCain who feels that torture does more harm than good, the facts of the report show that the CIA knowingly and I think purposely misled the public and the
One criticism of intelligence agencies that people were shocked to hear through the 9/11 Commission Report was that the Central Intelligence Agency had information on some of the suspects involved in the 9/11 plot. This information was requested by FBI agents multiple times but was not handed over because it would have jeopardized the case CIA was building against other operatives. (Soufan, 2011). The PATRIOT Act also allowed warrants to be issued in any district, whether or not the activity being investigated was being conducted in that district or not (Landahl, 2007). It also created penalties for harboring terrorists, increased maximum sentences for terrorism related activities, and most importantly eliminated the statue of limitations for terrorist activities (Landahl, 2007).
Poli-Sci Top Secret America This documentary is a perfect example on how the government is extremely secretive and exhibits how the government handles certain situations that are not exactly the “American Way”. “The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere” (The Washington Post). The result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe may be putting us in greater danger and slowing chipping away at our civil liberties because it was said “The Gloves are coming off” (Bush). This Secret
On the other hand, NSA Spying is actually very helpful when it comes to attacks that can harm us as a country. The NSA spies on potential people who are capable of committing terrorist or domestic terrorist attacks upon the U.S. This spying has helped us terminate terrorist attacks before they occur, attacks that could be put on the same scale of destruction as 9/11. The NSA is a very helpful government organization that has help fight the war on terror and extremist. NSA Spying should not be allowed because we as Americans have the right to privacy.