To begin with, Snowden’s revelations made know to the public that the NSA has been collecting phone records on millions of US citizens as well as running an electronic surveillance program code name PRISM. This secret program allows the agency to access the servers of major US internet companies and collect data on individuals’ web activities. Hence it violates our privacy laws, fourth amendment’s rights just to name a few. In an extensive article from Issues and Controversies, after the 9/11 terrorist attack, NSA embarked on broad surveillance programs which has kept the homeland safe from such
The forms they get the information to the U.S. government are: putting data onto a memory disk or external hard drive, or printing out the requested information for a federal official. Google says, FTP, also known as file transfer protocol, is an often used method for exchanging information between servers with extra security. By Google agreeing to this agreement the federal government can catch more criminals and terrorist. Next, I will cover one of our former presidents who believed in the NSA spying on our citizens. “President George W. Bush told CNN that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden “damaged the country,” but defended the PRISM surveillance program that his administration
NSA: Protecting us or Spying on us? June 11th, 2013 After reading the recent guardian news about the NSA, or the national security agency for those that aren’t familiar with this acronym, I couldn’t tell whether I was insanely mad or somewhat generous… Well okay let’s just start off from one point: how would you feel if you knew your phone conversations were overheard and recorded by the US national security!?!? Really? What if I had some personal conversations with my girlfriend? Or some private conversations with my parents?
Gravel v. United States 408 U.S. 606 (1972) Facts of the Case Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska was given a copy of the classified “Pentagon Papers” in 1971. After he received the classified documents, he called a meeting of his subcommittee in the Senate and shared their contents with the others in the subcommittee. He also allegedly arranged to publish the documents through Beacon Press. A federal grand jury, in the process of an investigation of possible federal law violations, subpoenaed one of Senator Gravel’s aides. Senator Gravel protested this subpoena arguing that requiring the aide to testify would be a violation of the Speech and Debate clause.
According to Peter Beinart, for a year and a half Tenet and the CIA repeatedly tried to temper the Pentagon and the White House hyping of the Iraq threat (2003). Perhaps if Tenet hadn’t been so patient or friendly with the White House, his voice would have been heard and respected. Additionally, Tenet loyalty to the president and his administration caused him to lose the truth and his responsibility to have the truth heard. He became too involved in the politics of the day and helping the administration use intelligence to justify a decision already made rather than informing them with data to make an informed decision. Instead of having the courage to tell what should be told, he opted to tell the parties what they wanted to hear.
The scandal was made even more captivating by the obvious intentions of those in charge to cover it up. One such piece of evidence was the revelation of the White House taping system, and more notably the 18 and 1/2 minutes of a recording that was speculated to be intentionally erased. This became known as “The 18 and 1/2 Minute Gap”. The gap is believed by many to be the discus-sions of President Richard Nixon and his Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman. According to Halde-man’s notes of their meeting that day, one of the topics of conversation was the arrests at the Watergate Complex.
RUNNING HEAD: THE PATRIOT ACT V CIVIL LIBERTIES The Patriot Act V. Civil Liberties Demetra Ohlen Saint Leo University Legal Issues in Criminal Justice Administration II CRM 551 Professor Jordan November 14, 2008 Abstract Since its inception, The Patriot Act has engendered a tremendous of controversy. Adversaries of the Act have maintained that it was approved opportunistically after the September 11 terrorist assault, believing there to have been little debate. They view the Act as one that was hurried through the Senate with little change before it was passed. The Act increases the ability of law enforcement agencies to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial and other records The Act increases the ability of law enforcement agencies to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial and other records; eases restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expands the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and enhances the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The act also expands the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA Patriot Act’s expanded law enforcement powers can be applied.
Well the answer to this questions is no. According to CNN, “The CIA had quite a bit of information about two of the hijackers and their presence in the United States before 9/11,” and their threat reports was shared with Bush administration official but even after multiple warnings, the Bush administration was not able to respond to these threats appropriately (Bergen P). Even though it is clear that NSA spying would not resolve in the prevention of such a detrimental terrorist attack, it is still their reason on continuing the program. The NSA also did not prevent the Boston bombing on April 15, 2013, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 people (Levitz J). The NSA spends around $2 billion each year but the results that the government is getting is not quite promising (Sahadi J).
Some people believe that the Americans are now at risk and have lost their protection from terrorist threats while others believe that the Americans’ right to privacy and freedom are lost. In the comment “Edward Snowden Is No Hero” by Jeffrey Toobin from The New Yorker website in June 10, 2013 the view on whistleblowing is presented in a negative way. Toobin believes that an unnecessary crime has been committed because the surveillance programs are a benefit for the society and on the same time harmless. Lastly it is expressed in the comment “In NSA leaks, Edward Snowden performed a service”, from The Washington Post website by Eugene Robinson in July, 2013, that Snowden as the leaker should be receiving thanks from the nation. He focuses on the leaked secret information as being a “valuable public service” for the country and it should be appreciated because the Americans get an insight in the Government’s acts.
Bernie Madoff Scandal-The King of Ponzi Schemes This particular ethics case scrutinizes Bernie Madoff scandal in detail. This is an intriguing case that delves into how Bernie Madoff was able to conceal such large scale fraud for number of years. With this said, an appropriate problem statement for this specific case would be, “The SEC, along with number of those who had knowledge of the fraudulent activity simply swept the scandal under the rug”. Although the single largest issue concerning this case was Bernie Madoff’s blatant disregard for other in conducting the fraud, this fraud could have been detected at a much earlier stage. As the case illustrated, there were dozens of serious and valid red flags that SEC was bombarded with by efforts made from Harry Markopolos.