technology and national security / privacy issues / Edward snowden
The massive 9/11 attacks revealed some obvious flaws in our security system. Terrorists not only managed to slip through the immigration and airports but also managed to live, train and plan within the United States for many years. The resulting fear of other terrorist groups who might have been living and training in U.S. were justifiable. In this regard, congress came close to passing the patriot Act that offered the government more powers to go after the terrorists. Nevertheless, security has since been tightened at the airports, borders and ports. Moreover, department of homeland security has since been created to monitor and control the efforts (Lyon, 2007).
Why government surveillance violates our constitutional rights
The government surveillance has no authority to have round the clock information of our religion, sleeping and waking hours, a person making calls to his friends, people making Christmas calls, our daily life, spying on our social life, the amount of colleagues we have and even knowing our political interests and affiliations. The NSA also keeps track of calls to emergencies, abortion clinics, sexual assault cases, helplines and support groups which is totally illegal and uncalled for. Thus NSA is committing a crime itself and invading the personal lives of Americans for that matter. It is also violating the first amendment in the American constitution. It must be stopped dead in its tracks (McVeigh, 2013).
The increased government power has been blamed on the deprivation of security and civil rights formally enjoyed by the citizens. For instance, people have and still are being put in jail in the absence of trial and access to a lawyer. Another example is, just like Clinton administration, the bush administration began particular local NSA spy operations on Americans without being overseen by the court. According to the civil rights advocates, a dangerous group in the form of government big brother is in the process of being established and is a threat to the way of life of Americans. Impracticable wartime efforts such as palmer raids and Japanese internment have been referenced as justifiable reasons for the present fears. Palmer Raids was an attempt by U.S. Department of Justice to deport and arrest anarchists and leftists from USA once and for all. Nearly, 500 such individuals were taken off American soil during the year of 1919. Thus, these actions are highly questionable under the pretext of American law (Kennedy, 1980). There have been many cases in case of American-Japanese imprisonment due to government detaining citizens in times of war. This is again a case of state committing crime against its own citizens by keeping a watch on them (Irons, 1976). Unfortunately, majority of these policies, including setting up wiretaps in the absence of a court warrant continues even under the presidency of Barrack Obama (Lyon, 2007).
The act of denying people their civil rights essentially interferes with the very definition of being an American really means which in turn hands the terrorists victory. The ability of individuals to lead a life free of government interference, whether one belongs to the majority or minority with the current government, is one of the things that make USA a great country. Therefore, the removal of civil rights disintegrates the very essence of being an American. There is really another better way of awarding the terrorists' actions that destroying Americans' way of life (Michael et al., 2010).
The existing protections offered by the constitution are being violated even as the U.S. constitution being regarded as one of the most enduring and intelligently created documents of all time. This explains why U.S. is the most successful country in the world and also the reason why many people across the globe come to settle here. It is quite unfortunate that the war efforts focused on terror is destroying constitutional force. Individuals are being tracked even in their places of
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