Edward Snowden Argument Analysis

Thesis Statement: The National Security Agency violates our constitutional rights by collecting data on our phone calls, messages, and Internet use without our consent.

After the gruesome attacks of 9/11, the United States government passed a legislation called the Patriot Act in attempt to cut down on the terror attacks. This act gives the NSA, or National Security Agency, the ability to oversee our actions. The NSA’s approach to surveilling the population is obtaining the information by tapping into technology, such as phone calls, internet pages and searches, and viewing emails and texts. Thus, controversy has triggered due to the fact that these actions are unconstitutional, and much terrorism that remains. The NSA should be greatly altered because they invade the privacy of Americans, unlawfully goes against the constitution, and we lose our rights.

The moment that the Twin Towers fell in New York, America became destined for change. In the wake of these attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was quickly passed through congress, and signed by then-president, George W. Bush. The act itself gives the FBI and other government agencies the ability to do and use certain methods, many of which are already used by other law enforcement organizations, to help prevent future terrorist attacks. Since then, this piece of legislation has been the center of much debate and controversy. But, there is ample reason to believe that the Patriot Act is needed and effective. The Patriot Act has been used effectively because it has extensive supervision, is completely constitutional, and has helped to protect

The NSA or the National Security Agency carries out most of the domestic surveillance in the United States. Before the 9/11 attacks the NSA needed approval from a court, but after the attacks, they were given free reign to copy any data that possibly linked to terrorist activities. This led to many arguments over whether this collection of data was unconstitutional or not. The extent of this surveillance shocked many people; many civil rights advocates thought that this surveillance breached United States citizens’ rights. Because of the threat of domestic surveillance in the United States it should be decreased drastically but not entirely stopped.

"I can 't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they 're secretly building" (Edward Snowden). The NSA began monitoring and collecting sensitive and personal information from Americans such as their emails, phone calls, photos and other private material. Massive surveillance began in 2001 after the terrorist attack in New York and since then there has been a big peak in government watching. It 's unnecessary for the NSA to monitor American’s private conversations as well as other sensitive data because people should be able to have a sense of privacy in personal communication with others.

Traditional argument assumes that people are most readily convinced or persuaded by a confrontation “debate”. This form of argument is mostly used in essays or critical analysis. In a traditional argument, even though the writes argues reasonably and fairly, the writer provides evidence to support or back up their claim, the argument becomes kind of a struggle of “war”.

Pincus, Walter. "Oversight board says NSA data mining puts citizens ' privacy at risk but sees no abuse." The Washington Post. WP Company, 14 July 2014. Web. 7 Mar. 2017.

In his excellent blog NSA surveillance and the Failure of Intelligence, Aftergood looks at the history of domestic

Most people have the standpoint that because it doesn’t affect them, they shouldn’t really bother with doing anything about it. However, doesn’t the NSA breach our Fourth Amendment rights? The Fourth Amendment guarantees, "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated," but doesn’t mass phone data collection violate that? Legally to search someone you need a warrant but the NSA completely bypasses that. But there is also the problem that if the NSA become completely transparent, the terrorist and other people the NSA is trying to catch, will have more knowledge as how to not get caught, which would just make the NSA ineffective.

According to the BBC, it has become known that the NSA was responsible in the massive surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans through the PRISM progra,, not just those who have suspected links to terrorism. Companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo routinely provided a back door for the NSA to tap into their servers and track online communications (Document 1). This article was released about two years after the leaks when the debates over the future of the PATRIOT Act started to intensify. The National Security Agency strong armed these firms into giving up clients’ private data. No one stood in their way because the NSA had the full backing of the blinded Congress. Congress members knew of the program, but they had no knowledge of the extent to which Constitutional rights were being violated. James Clapper, former director of the NSA, repeatedly lied under oath stating that he was not aware of the routine call collections that was going on. Later, Edward Snowden’s oncoming leaks revealed to them that James Clapper had committed perjury. As the US Department of Justice reworded the PATRIOT Act, the law allocates all necessary tools to investigators to investigate any organized crimes. It removes the barrier that prevented fluid cooperation between law

We live in a world where the communication is the foundation for sharing information between people and debating is a formal way of communicating. Debating on the “Insurance policies obtained through the Affordable Care Act should be replaced by High Deductible Health Plans paired with tax free Health Savings Accounts” was challenging in many ways. My team was on the con side. From the beginning, all members of the team agreed that the Affordable Care Act is a controversial and complicated topic, however, ACA has made a number of positive changes to the health care system and increased access to health care services. In addition, the ACA has a tremendous impact not just on patients, but also on health care providers and workers.

The central government’s new surveillance systems (challenge/interfere with) our basic constitutional rights. In addition, spying has increased fear among American citizens. Finally, the government has squandered its resources/money on new military and (security/defense) technology, which has proven to be ineffective.

What is a Toulmin Argument? This is when you are considering who your audience is specifically, and you are considering their counterarguments before hand. The analysis suggest you to strongly have prepared evidence and have in mind possible disagreements. A good argument must be fair not a one-sided position. To choose a good Toulmin argument strategies such as answering questions like, what happened, do you believe it is true or false? what is it? Define it. What are the causes and effects, are they good or bad? how can you resolve it? It is key to know who your audience is. Some questions to analyze the audience may be, do they believe your issue? what enables them to believe your stand? what background information do you need to persuade

Bamford, James. The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America. New York: Doubleday, 2008. Print.

“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.” – Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood