Edward Snowden: Should The Government Spy On The Public?

Ever since the cloudy day on September 11, 2001, when two planes crashed into the twin towers, the United States government has been cracking down on security. The Patriot Act, passed October 26, 2001, was an effort by the United States government to ‘crack down’ on terrorism. The act removed several legal barriers that blocked or restricted law enforcement, intelligence, and defense agencies from storing data about possible terrorist threats and collaborating together to respond to them. The Patriot Act was supposed to make United States citizens feel more secure but in reality it had the opposite effect. Around 2013, when confidential NSA documents were leaked it was found that several government agencies had used the guise of the Patriot Act to monitor millions of United States citizens. In fact, it was found out by several civil liberties groups that the Patriot Act applies to more than just terrorist acts. For example, Title II of the Patriot Act allows government agencies to tap telephone lines and permits the interception of messages that may be relevant to a criminal investigation. Further, the act allows authorities to provide access to any tangible thing(books, records, papers, etc). Today, March 2, 2016, fifteen years after the government was given permission to spy on most of its citizens, the government is trying to spy on all Apple iPhones through the use of a code cracking software.

The American people, including many big corporations such as Apple, disagree with the government collecting the personal information of the American people. President, Barack Obama, stated that intelligence committees and all congress members were briefed on the Patriot Act and its contents (Obama). The congressmen knew what the Patriot Act did involving the personal commutations in the United States. Nevertheless, the Patriot act was voted into being a law almost unanimously in the senate, 98-1, and 357-66 in the House of Representatives (Patriot Act). When Ed Snowden leaked that the NSA was obtaining personal information and how it was handled, the American people became shocked and outraged towards the government, and created a tension from the American people towards the government.

Thomas Jefferson said, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” The National Security Agency (NSA), established by the National Security Act of 1947, exists to safeguard American citizens against terror threats and foreign intelligence.(National Archives) Since the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, the NSA, through the guise of the Patriot Act, has been investigating American citizens who are not suspect of law breaking. President George W. Bush enacted the Patriot Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 [Britannica]) in October 2001, but current President Barack Obama furthered its parameters via Executive Orders such as EO’s 13526 and 13549 (Federal Register). The Agency’s private investigations have caused public suspicion. This concern was validated by the revelation of the government’s collection of metadata (phone history), storage of text messages, possession of spy programs, and proof of the wire tapping of two-country related phone calls after Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, leaked private information to the public in May/June of 2013. (Britannica)

One of the National Security Agency’s top goals, is to prevent future terrorist attacks. Since its passage following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act has played a key role in many successful operations to prevent and to protect innocent Americans from the deadly plans of terrorists dedicated to destroying America. However great results from passing the Patriot Act, Congress allowed, slow and small changes in the law. But what ended up happening was a huge movement and netting of survelliance and wire taps around the country. People felt as though their rights were being violated. Congress had only taken existing legal guidelines and reestablished them to protect the lives and liberty of the people in the United States of America from the challenges posed by a global terrorist network(NBC News). That is why the NSA should be allowed to break our constitutional privacy. Yet that is only if the security and the well-being of the United states is threatened, if our allies and members of our own country join those making threats against us, and when it is made clear that our national security has been broken down and

On September 11, 2001, acts of terror inflicted upon the United States influenced the federal government to take action and draft legislation to combat new terrorist threats (Patriot Act). Unfortunately, the federal government used this opportunity to turn the new grandiloquence legislation, known as the Patriot Act, against the common interest of the American people. The Patriot Act allowed government agencies, such as the NSA, to monitor the actions and conversations of personal communications (Snowden). Furthermore, the act allowed the massive amounts of information to be stored in the NSA database, and some of that information collected passed around washington. When the American public realized the foul the government was committing, they became very upset with the federal government, and the emotions caused a tension between the American people and the federal government. Although, when the patriot act was first written, stated that its purpose was to combat terrorism.

On June 6, 2013 the details of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance activities where given by Edward Snowden to the public; raising concerns of Americans about their privacy. Edward Snowden, a former employee of the NSA, gave the alarming details of surveillance programs in his interview on how the NSA accesses our emails, calls, internet activity, and anything else that is related to technology. In this system of surveillance the NSA can gather data from companies and tap the cables that are vital for moving around information from technological devices, they may also use their relationships with technology companies to get emails or information straight from U.S. servers. (Cawley, Kiss, Boyd, Ball) Nevertheless, the claim is

After the disclosures by Edward Snowden turned a critical eye to the NSA many people questioned the legality of the acts. The NSA claimed that their work was legal and had prevented many terrorist plots. However, evidence of only four plots was ever found. Even if the acts were founded in law, they still angered large numbers of citizens. Many citizens do not care if the spying is legal, believing that it is morally wrong. Government surveillance organizations have grown to be extremely powerful and are capable of accessing large swaths of personal information; these abilities intrude into the private lives of citizens and need to be curtailed.

Ever since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and an area in Pennsylvania, in which nearly 3,000 helpless individuals were killed, the U.S. Congress began to pass legislation that would strengthen the United State’s counterterrorism efforts. Less than a month after the horrific attack, the National Security Agency (NSA) started a “special collection program” with intentions to track communications among suspected terrorists and Al Qaeda leaders. Then on October 4, 2001, President George W. Bush authorized the NSA to monitor domestic communications in order to track down suspected terrorists. Two problems shortly arose from Bush’s decision: the fact that his authorization to NSA was carried out in secret and also that monitoring the domestic communications was done without a warrant. This proved to be illegal since the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act states that the government is prohibited from eavesdropping inside the United States without first getting a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court). In order to counteract the issues he had caused, on October 26, 2001 Bush signed the Patriot Act; a law that would expand the government’s electronic surveillance powers. After signing this law Bush stated, “The existing law was written in the era of rotary telephones. This new law that I sign today will allow surveillance of all communications used by terrorists, including emails, the

Specifically, Edward Snowden is known nationwide as government employee who leaked top-secret information about the National Security Agency’s

If the patriot act was ever repealed, they would have to stop and could no longer continue to collect and gather data. By the government’s authority, they must do this even if the public despise the organization, which they do. All those employed at the NSA carry out an important job and they are trusted to protect the country by looking through hundreds of thousands data files only to find possible threats. They aren’t even that common, most of the data is most likely useless to them as it doesn’t have any information that is important to them. Having to search through all of this has to be a tedious job, but they continue to do it as they are aware that they are potentially saving their country from another terrorist attack like 9/11.

Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.

The war on terrorism immediately followed the 9/11 attacks on American soil. However, shortly after the horrific event came the USA Patriot Act. The Act, was immediately passed by those in the House of Representatives and signed by the president became the new law. It passed abruptly and by the majority without being fully examined giving new privileges to the U.S. Government over the private individual. The USA Patriot Act consists of hundreds of pages of changes and revisions of law that could eventually affect the rights of American citizens forever. In particular, the Act entails major alterations to existing surveillance laws expanding the government 's authority to spy on citizens, while at the same time reducing their public and constitutional accountability to American citizens. The main idea is that spying on citizens is a useless weapon; its methods are misused, it is unnecessary, it threatens a constitutional democracy, and it is unconstitutional for the United States government to spy on its citizens when combating terrorism.

Recent controversy has exposed one of the most heated and long-standing debates about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless wiretapping. Although that beginning of the program conducted by the NSA is unknown, it is easily assumed that the NSA has been practicing such surveillance activities for a long time, or as long as national security has been threatened. Nevertheless, the program started well before the tragic events that unfolded on September 11, 2001, with the Bush administration directing the NSA to begin secretly surveilling conversations between U.S. citizens and suspected foreign terrorists.

The reason Edward Snowden has left his amazing life behind is not because he was forced to but it was because he felt a sense of duty to, and he did not want to be part of the government, specifically the NSA for what they were doing. Edward Snowden believed what the NSA did was wrong and he did not want to be part of an organization as this. In this interview of Edward Snowden, he was asked multiple question and one of the most important

The government is also always adding new ones to even further enforce what the NSA cannot do. The government placed new limits on the monitoring of foreign leaders and ordinary non-Americans; and supporting new encryption standards and technologies. Meanwhile, in Congress, two bills that would forbid the NSA from collecting phone data on Americans not suspected of a crime are new to the process. The USA Freedom Act, which reforms the Patriot Act to address privacy concerns, had enough support to pass. Still, many Democrats and Republicans say the NSA programs are needed counterterrorism tools that have proved effective in preventing future