Periodically the U.S. goes through periods of paranoia, its citizens frightened and willing to set aside the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution. In the 1840s the fear was directed against the Irish and in the 1870s against Chinese. After both World Wars we experienced what has come to be known as the Red Scares. That is a very truncated list; I could add many more.
Our latest descent into fear and paranoia involves “terrorism.” Beginning with the illegal roundup of hundreds of Muslims after 9/11, and including Guantanamo and torture, the fear has also prompted lesser annoyances, such as over 900,000 people on restricted fly lists, the necessity for passports to drive into Canada, and the tapping of friendly foreign leaders’ conversations.
Terrorists are real. I know that. What I don’t see is how that justifies the N.S.A. recording the phone calls and emails of ordinary Americans. In the last two days, I’m proud to say, we saw some pushback in three different areas.
On Monday a federal district court judge, Richard J. Leon, said the N.S.A. recording of all Americans’ phone calls was “almost Orwellian.” He said Madison would be “aghast.”
His opinion, of course, will be appealed by the Justice Department. The Justice Department is an executive department under President Obama.
Secondly, when President Obama met with some of the nation’s leaders in the tech industry to discuss the health care website problems, those leaders were more interested in discussing the privacy rights of their users and customers.
Third, a panel appointed to review the surveillance activities of N.S.A. released its report on Wednesday. It made 46 recommendations, many of which called for limiting the N.S.A. activities. The President is said to be open to many of the proposals.
Incidentally, we would not even have known how extensive the N.S.A. taps and recordings were if it had not been for Edward Snowden.
I believe what the NSA is doing is tracking phone calls that appear suspicious in nature and then start the process to determine what is happening. It something how we see things differently after an event such as 9/11. WE wanted to Gov't to do whatever was necessary to prevent such a thing happening again. The security of our country and citizens is utmost. Having spent two years with the CIA in the 60's I came to recognize the importance of things.
ReplyDeleteActually, NSA is recording EVERY call made in the U.S. The panel appointed by the President pointed out that this is not good intelligence work. Remember what Ben Franklin said, "Those who give up freedom for security will soon have neither freedom nor security."
ReplyDeleteFranklin was a very intelligent man, but I cannot believe how he would respond to events and the licks of these terrorist we have today.
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