Privacy Security
National Security vs. Individual Liberties
A Long Standing Debate has Taken a New Turn in the Modern Digital Era
WikiLeaks
The Edward Snowden Leaks
Liberty and National Security
The debate between national security and individual liberties, especially privacy, has reached new proportions as technology has increased the ability for the state to create mass surveillance programs. The events that occurred on September 11th, 2001, definitely changed the political and social landscape within the United States. This also heightened the debate between security and privacy. Many politicians made the case that they needed new and more technologically advanced protection systems to help combat the threat of terrorism.
Politicians were quick to use the aftershock of the terrorism events to pass new legislation that significantly expanded the ability of organizations such as the CIA and NSA to create new tools to monitor both domestic and foreign individuals. The extent of the programs that were enacted were not fully realized by the American public until recent leaks of classified information has provided some insights into some of the programs that were running in secret beyond the knowledge of the public. This analysis will look at some of the recent revelations and argue that the U.S. government has definitely overstepped its bounds in regards to maintaining the civil liberties of its citizens.
The claims and arguments in defense of violating certain civil liberties were made in order try to prevent future acts of terrorism on the United States and around the globe. Many of the advanced nations around the globe implemented similar measures; although most not as comprehensive at what is found in the U.S. However, intelligence agency has intertwined many of their services to from a global web of surveillance. There is now a large intentional task force that is tasked to guard against the terrorist threat. Yet one of the problems in this quest is that there is no one single definition of terrorism. In fact, many of the acts that the U.S. has committed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan can be considered terrorism by most definitions. Therefore, the concept of terrorism is selective at best.
WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks was the first organization to begin to unveil what has happening behind the scenes of the intelligence agencies. In fact, there was a documentary made called "Collateral Murder" which clearly portrays a U.S. gunship gunning down some reporters that work for Reuters (Collateral Murder). Furthermore, the continued publishing of thousands secret documents from war files and diplomatic cables has not been proven to have jeopardized the lives of many Americans; as some have claimed. Although it has been costly in regard to the U.S. diplomatic standing with many foreign agencies, there has not been one death that can be attributed to this level of transparency. Although the leaks have been costly to the American people both in terms of their strategic interests as well as their diplomatic relations around the world, this is only a result of transparency. WikiLeaks served as an embarrassment to the American government to many organizations around the world.
There was one rural farmer however, in Tunisia who was so upset with the corruption of the ruling class after reading a WikiLeaks cable that he decided to light himself on fire in front of the government building. The purported catalyst of these riots was the self-immolation of a fruit seller who killed himself after facing the harsh reality of the unemployment and desperation; In an interview on DemocracyNow! Fares Mabrouk, a Tunisian activist, spoke about how the quick solidarity with Tunisians that emerged did not relate to any political party or union (Anonymous). The entire Arab spring was not organized from top down, but people rose up, unifying in support of human dignity. The following events known as the Arab Spring brought several dictatorships to their knees and gave people hope for the first time in decades. It was transparency that led a nation to demand more from their government.
Well you may say that those were third world countries that were ruled by dictators and isn't nearly the same set of circumstances that are present in our democracy. Our country is fighting terrorism. Furthermore the war on terrorism requires a certain amount of secrecy so that the military can achieve its objectives. Publishing classified information would allow the terrorists to gain the upper hand.
Relating the Arab Spring to the events in the U.S. is definitely a bit of a stretch....
The other components of DNI office operate under the guidance of heads of independent departments. The apparent organizational chart of DNI office is grounded on a middle link between confederated model and the intelligence department with line managers over different functions. This services resources with and not daily guidelines of the subordinate structures. This design was introduced by the 2004 Act that formed the office of DNI (United States,
This has been the basic rationale for every totalitarian state during the Twentieth Century. It is the idea that if the people relinquish their rights -- especially their rights to keep anything hidden from the government -- then the government will be better able to ensure that no potential threats to the security of the citizenry ever manifest themselves. This premise, however, is based on the faulty idea that
Internet: Privacy for High School Students An Analysis of Privacy Issues and High School Students in the United States Today In the Age of Information, the issue of invasion of privacy continues to dominate the headlines. More and more people, it seems, are becoming victims of identity theft, one of the major forms of privacy invasion, and personal information on just about everyone in the world is available at the click of
Security Information is the Power. The importance of collecting, storing, processing and communicating the relevant information presently is viewed as crucial in order to achieve success in almost all the fields be it business firms, individuals or organizations. An integrated set of components assisting collection, store, process and communication of information is termed as information system. Increasing dependence on information systems is noticed in order to excel in the respective fields
They need to know what their responsibilities are not only as individuals but also as team members and corporate employees. David cites an excerpt from a corporate security document that illustrates his point: "A security policy serves many functions. It is a central document that describes in detail acceptable network activity and penalties for misuse. A security policy also provides a forum for identifying and clarifying security goals and
Liberty in Times of War Civil liberties are curtailed during wars. In the recent past during the 9/11 attack American and non-American citizens' civil liberties were infringed. Civil liberties are eroded whenever emergency power is exercised. During war government authorities tend to withhold information. Documents are over-classified and information withheld from the Congress and the general public (Fisher, 2003). After the 9/11 attack President Bush released a memo that limit the
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