Imagine for a second that every phone call you make, every text message you send, and every place you go is being constantly monitored by multiple governments. Well this is basically what the United State and United Kingdom's government is doing on a daily basis. The United States National Security Agency has been implementing projects in secret to monitoring people since 2001 but it would still be kept as a secret if Edward Snowden did not reveal this massive secret that was intruding the public’s privacy for years.
The U.S. surveillance program started because of the September 9th, 2001 terrorist attack that hijacked airplanes and slammed them into the World Trade Center towers. It evolve over time and President George W. Bush’s "Terrorist Surveillance Program" had created PRISM. This program gave NSA access to “Big Data” like phone’s metadata and data that are sent over the internet (Gellman B and Poitras L). This issue became aware to the public at June 6th, 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed to the items to The Guardian.
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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). It is ironic how the people that pay the taxes to the government is actually the ones getting spied
Overall, the Patriot Act may have helped to prevent terrorism, but it came at a cost. Before 9/11, there were a few other terrorist attacks that alerted Americans. One such attack was the Oklahoma City bombing. The bombing occurred in 1995. A truck containing explosives was driven to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and it was detonated.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the Anthrax scare of 2001, Congress moved with tremendous force to make new powers for the federal government to prevent future terrorism. The most extensive effort was the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (nicknamed the USA Patriot Act) of 2001, signed into law on October 26, less than six weeks after the attacks on 9/11. The legislation granted additional wiretapping and surveillance authority to federal law enforcement, removed barriers between law enforcement and intelligence agencies, added financial disclosure and reporting requirements to stop terrorist funding, and gave greater authority to the
The USA Patriot Act signed into law by both congress and George W. Bush on October 26, 2001, exactly a month and fifteen days after the terrorist attack. Solemnly, the Patriot Act was altered to strengthen U.S.measure to deter and punish terrorist acts against the United States. The Patriot Act was intended to "enhance the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them," the words of George W. Bush. I believe the intents of
In the same article it is said that, “Leon previously said the bulk collection of phone records is likely unconstitutional.” The problem of the NSA collecting phone data and storing the information continued to be a problem over a decade after the Act was signed into law. “In a May 2015 decision, a federal appellate court found the aforementioned program to be illegal under the PATRIOT Act… Collecting massive records in a database for some ‘hypothetical future time’ was not relevant under the statute” (Pike USA PATRIOT Act Still Raising Questions). The Patriot Act allows the government to ignore the constitution when it comes to imprisonment of suspected terrorists and allows the government to spy on its
In response, the United States implemented the USA Patriot Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by providing appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act), significantly impacting homeland security within the country. The act introduced surveillance measures, such as monitoring communication networks like telephones and texts, to gather data and identify suspicious activity. Additionally, it allowed for the scrutiny of business records and financial transactions, aiding authorities in investigating potential terrorist acts and funding sources. According to statistics from the Pew Research Center, 42% of the public viewed the Patriot Act as a necessary tool to combat terrorism, while 34% believed it went too far and posed a threat to civil liberties. These differing perspectives reflect an ongoing debate regarding the act's impact on national security and civil liberties.
The Patriot Act is supposed to improve “our counter-terrorism efforts in several significant ways” ("What Is the USA Patriot Web."). This act allows law enforcement the tools to investigate organized crime and law enforcement agencies to share information to improved cases. The Patriot Act made it easier for law enforcement to retrieve the evidence and the consequences for terrorist crimes stronger. For example,
Subsequent, to the September 11th,2001 terrorist attacks, the Department of Justice proposed The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act) to prevent future terroristic attacks. According to Preserving Life and Liberty article, the PATRIOT ACT has played an imperative part in “a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from plans of terrorist dedicated to destroying America and our way of life.” Further, Rosemary Jenks emphases in her article “A Summary of the Anti-Terrorism Law’s Immigration – Related Provision” that the PATRIOT Act focuses mainly on “reinforcing the arsenal of tools available to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and federal prosecutors for identifying and disabling terrorist networks operating both
The U.S follows a different school of surveillance. Despite the fundamental right to be held “innocent until proven guilty”, it monitors everyone until proven innocent. The status quo could of course damage America’s long known liberties granted by the Constitution. Recent revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, have confirmed that the government is more likely to cross some constitutional lines in the name of national security. “The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) regulates the government’s acquisition of any electronic surveillance within the country for foreign intelligence use.
Though the NSA has economically benefited the United States by helping the prevention of attacks by the terrorist, giving fund towards the government and use of programs, and also the prevention of others hacking and taking over the system, it is believed that it is best if the NSA just does not continue any further. With the continuation of the NSA it can cost more taxes to be removed and invading our privacy which is against our rights in the constitution which states, “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ” We can solve the problem of the NSA invasion by shutting down their programs causing them to not invade our privacy and use money which could be used for many other
On September 11, 2001 the United States changed as a Nation due to the horrific and terrifying events that happened on that day. People no longer felt safe and worried about another terroristic attack would happen, travelers were afraid to fly because of what had happen which Americans looked to the government to find answers to protect them. This lead to the needing of government to have increasing responsibility and to take effective measures for preserving lives of people and ensuring independence of the society which lead to the USA Patriot Act. According to Gaines, 2012, Homeland Security, this legislation was passed by the Senate on October 11, 2001 and was passed by the House on October 24, 2001. President George W. Bush signed the
Ever since the Patriot Act came into effect, innocent Americans have been caught in the middle of a “danger zone” where they can be spied on and tracked at all times. The Patriot Act would be much more advantageous if the purpose was to catch regular criminal activity because that is virtually all it has done. To put into context how far the powers of the Patriot Act are being misused, in the span of three years (2003-2006), the FBI “issued 192,499 NSL’s of which only one led to a terror-related conviction, which would have occurred even without the Patriot Act” (Science of Security). Not only that, “as a result of 143,074 NSL’s issued between 2003 and 2005, the FBI made 53 reported criminal referrals to prosecutors of which 17 were for money laundering, 17 related to immigration, 19 involved in fraud, but zero were terror-related” (Justice). Lastly, “of the 3,970 sneak and peek searches in 2010, 76% were drug related and 24% were accredited to other crimes, while less than one percent were terror-related” (Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts for Delayed-Notice Search Warrants and Extensions).
This question is not one that can be answered by just a simple yes or no, but by research and explanation. The Patriot Act which was signed in 2001 after 9/11 gave more freedom to law enforcement to help prevent another terrorist attack like that. So is it helping or hurting us? Do law enforcement have too much freedom over what they can monitor us doing? Is the NSA doing their job or simply invading our privacy?
NSA hides the fact that they are monitoring on US citizens without the warrant as they find some connection between the person monitored and some illegal activity to justify their monitoring. At first, after the 9/11, President George W. Bush started a program of mass monitoring of US communication. He had started it without FISA Court’s knowledge and when the population find out about this Congress had to create and enact the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 and inside was the crucial Section 702 that, by law, validates mass monitoring over the last 7 years. These communication monitoring systems rely on these two statutes: FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (Section 702) and Patriot Act (Section 215).
US News reports the FISA and USA Patriot Act as a "privacy scandal" (Fox, 2013). NPR News reports the concern of "civil liberty[ies] groups" protesting the USA Patriot Act and the concern for the authorities to demand business records from various companies (Johnson, 2011, p.1). What the media fails to convey to the general public is the intent of these Acts is to combat terrorism and not to invade privacy. Millions of people travel the world every day snapping photos from their digital cameras and iPhones. Perhaps to capture a memory or an unusual event, and sometimes other people in the background.
Some people might argue that since 911 we have not had a major terrorist attack on US soil, which would imply that it is working. A terrorist attack like 911 has never taken place before and hasn’t happened since. Also the NSA spying programs would not have been helpful “we already know that more NSA spying would not have stopped 9/11; most of the needed information was already held by the U.S. government and was simply not properly shared or acted upon”(Van Buren,