Criminal Justice
Edward Snowden

Is Edward Snowden a hero or traitor?

Is Edward Snowden a hero or traitor?

Edward Snowden used to work as an intelligence contractor. Lately he leaked information about some security projects. The leaked information is about secret program carried out by NASA and is a massive surveillance program. Snowden believes that the tax money of people of America is a liability on government and government institutions and hence they have the right to know how and where their money is being used. On the other hand, the president of United States calls those files classified, hence Snowden is charged with accused of being a traitor. The public, on the other hands calls him a hero and it is raising voices for Snowden who escaped to Hong Kong.

Goldman (2013) says that Snowden was a whistle-blower before his "promotion" to either hero or the traitor's role. He has been leaking information on…...

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References

Goldman, R., (2013), "Hero. Traitor. Whistle-Blower. Spy. What to Call NSA Leaker Ed

Snowden?  http://abcnews.go.com/U.S./nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-whistle-blower/story?id=19374578#.UdJQd2zn_Dd 

Hampson, R., (2013), "Is Snowden a traitor or a public servant?," Retrieved from;

 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/10/snowden-leaks-nsa-privacy-terrorist/2408803/

Patriotism/Edward Snowden
Intstitution:

Edward Snowden, 30, well-known for his previous job as a contractor in the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), is presently living in ussia since his escape from the United States via Hong Kong, due to a revelation of extensive internet and phone surveillance carried out by U.S. intelligence. He used to live with his girlfriend in Hawaii, but after the revelation, initially left for Hong Kong, where his identity got public through UK's Guardian newspaper, with his consent. The U.S., as they filed charges, asked local officials for his deportation. Snowden thus left Hong Kong on 23rd June primarily for Moscow, but with the intent of seeking refuge in Ecuador (BBC News, 2013).

Background

As reported, Edward Snowden was brought up in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and then moved to Maryland later, near the headquarters of NSA at Fort Meade. He joined the U.S. Army in 2003, but had to leave…...

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References

BBC News. (2013). Profile: Edward Snowden. Retrieved 31 May 2016 from  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22837100 

Cole, M. Esposito, R. Dedman B.&Schone, M. (2014). Traitor or Patriot? Edward Snowden Sits Down with Brian Williamson News. Retrieved 31 May 2016 from  http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview/traitor-or-patriot-edward-snowden-sits-down-brian-williams-n117006 

HBO. (2016). Citizenfour. Retrieved 31 May 2016 from  http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/citizenfour/synopsis.html 

Zeitchik, Steven. (2014). NYFF 2014: Edward Snowden Documentary 'Citizenfour' jolts Film World. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 May 2016 from  http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/filmfestivals/la-et-mn-edward-snowden-movie-citizenfour-laura-poitras-20141011-story.html

PISM- Edward Snowden
PISM

PISM, deployed by the NSA (National Security Agency) of United States, is a tool used for private electronic data gathering which belongs to the people who use leading internet services such as Gmail, Outlook, Facebook, etc. In the wake of 9/11, the latest effort made by the U.S. government for electronic surveillance is the development of PISM, which initially started in the supremacy of President Bush with the Patriot Act, and later extended to include the (FISA) Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Actordained in 2006 and 2007 (Sottek & Kopstein, 2013)

Though the complete knowledge regarding the functioning of PISM is still unknown, but the basic impression implies that it allows the NSA to apply for data from leading technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, etc. about specific people. However, U.S. government claims that the data can be collected only after acquiring the permission from the secretive Foreign…...

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References

Bicchierai, L.F. (2014). The 10 Biggest Revelations from Edward Snowden's Leaks. Mashable India. Retrieved 1 June 2016 fromhttp://mashable.com/2014/06/05/edward-snowden-revelations/

Elliott, K. & Rupar, T. (2013). Six Months of Revelations on NSA. The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 June 2016 from  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/nsa-timeline/ 

Kelion, L. (2013). Q&A: NSA's Prism Internet Surveillance Scheme. BBC News. Retrieved 1 June 2016 from  http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-23051248 

NPR. (2014). Debate: Was Edward Snowden Justified? Intelligence Squared U.S.. Retrieved 1 June 2016 from  http://www.npr.org/2014/02/18/279151014/debate-was-edward-snowden-justified

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…...

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References

Allmer, Thomas (2012). Towards a Critical Theory of Surveillance in Informational Capitalism. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). (nd). Mass Surveillance Technologies. Accessed on February 1, 2014 from:  https://www.eff.org/issues/mass-surveillance-technologies 

Feldman, Jay. (2011). Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Hier, Sean P., & Greenberg, Joshua (Eds.). (2009). Surveillance: Power, Problems, and Politics. Vancouver, CA: UBC Press.

This essay reviews the relevant literature to provide a background on Edward Snowden and how his high-profile actions adversely affected the work of the National Security Agency (NSA). An analysis of what the NSA was doing prior to the leaks and how it collects intelligence information now is followed by an examination concerning what Snowden leaked and why. Finally, a discussion concerning whether the U.S. government violated Snowden’s constitutional rights is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning this issue in the conclusion.
Background of the Issue

Beginning in June 2013, Edward Snowden, a computer analyst working for the National Security Agency began leaking thousands of classified documents. These classified documents were disclosed to the Guardian and alleged that the NSA routinely gathered telephonic metadata from telecommunications companies, allowing them to scrutinize American citizens’ Internet activities (Morrison, 2014). According to Francheschi-Bicchierai (2014), among the thousands of documents that…...

Quandary of Prosecuting Edward Snowden
The source of law that controls the prosecution of Edward Snowden is both federal and international law. Because Snowden is an American citizen who sought asylum overseas, he is outside of the direct jurisdiction of the U.S. government. Still, the U.S. government is the entity that wants Snowden for his crimes. Snowden has not committed any crimes except for those that violated the U.S.

Snowden can be charged and arrested by a state law-enforcement officer if he commits some sort of crime in that particular state. However, the crimes that Snowden has become notorious for were not committed at a state level, but rather at the federal level. Those crimes must get prosecuted in a federal setting, since they were committed against the nation as a whole.

The crux of the matter with the Snowden issue is that he transgressed federal law for ethical reasons. The young…...

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References

Louis, E. (2014). Treachery and its consequences. The Economist. Retrieved from  http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/01/snowden-case-prosecution

1. The constitutional foundation for the right to privacy is multifaceted. However, this right is implicit to the right of liberty guaranteed by this document. In particular, privacy is a manifestation of the civil liberties which all citizens are assured of in the U.S. Constitution. The preamble to the constitution states this fact. The preamble reveals the Constitution was created in part to “secure the Blessings of Liberty” (Founding Fathers). The blessings of liberty quickly become a curse if there is no privacy. If people were able to see and become cognizant of everything everyone did, then people are not necessarily free or experiencing a state of liberty. Privacy, therefore, is implicit to liberty, which is why the constitutional defense of this concept provides the foundation for the right to privacy.

There are other parts of the constitution which provide a foundation to the right of privacy as it relates to…...

Technology Boston Bombings
The Use of Technology in the Boston Bombings Investigations

The Boston Marathon bombing incident was an act of terror that took place on April 15th, 2013 during the annual Boston Marathon. During the event, bombs were positioned in proximity to the race's finish line. The bombs killed two individuals and injured over two hundred fifty others would where close by. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were the primary suspects in the case that were identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). A day after the bombings a massive manhunt ensued to find the individuals. However, one of the interesting aspects about the case is how the FBI was able to identify the suspects. An unprecedented amount of digital data was available for use and the FBI and other organizations utilized crowdsourcing techniques to help funnel through the data.

The advent of digital technologies coupled with the falling costs of…...

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References

Bio. (2014, April 3). Edward Snowden Biography. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from Bio:  http://www.biography.com/people/edward-snowden-21262897 

Boston, C. o. (2014). After Action Report for the Response to the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings. Boston.

Johnson, C. (2012, July 16). Scientist's game helps map the brain. Retrieved from The Boston Globe:  http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/07/15/mit-scientists-crowdsource-effort-map-connections-brain/v1CEwhwl90GDjKzL6oTC4L/story.html 

Kelly, H. (2013, April 26). After Boston: The pros and cons of surveillance cameras. Retrieved from CNN:  http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/26/tech/innovation/security-cameras-boston-bombings/

component graded.
The amassing of data has become an integral process of life in the 21st century (Nunan and Di Domenico, 2013, p. 2). This fact is partially reflected by the fact that in contemporary times, people are generating much more data than they previously did. Every time someone goes shopping and makes a purchase with a credit card, receives a call or sends a text message, or visits a web site on a computer or downloads information to a mobile phone application, they are generating data. This data is stored and, through sophisticated processes of analytics that involve data mining and even predictive capabilities, is analyzed to determine aspects of consumer, individual, and collective behavior. The generation of these massive quantities of data in the myriad forms such data takes at the rapidity of real-time access is known as big data, which government representatives claim they are analyzing to…...

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References

Byman, D., Wittes, B. (2014). Reforming the NSA. Foreign Affairs. 93(3), 127-138.

This source considers a number of possibilities for reforming the NSA which are viable in the wake of Snowden's security breach. It examines other country's approaches to espionage as well. In provides an in-depth read into the considerations the NSA must make for securing the country

Hackett, K. (2013). Edward Snowden: the new brand of whistle blower. Quill. 101(5), 26-31. This source examines the ramifications of the actions of whistle blowers, and attempts to deconstruct the privacy issues associated with security concerns in the U.S. It details the actions of Snowden.

Nuna, D., Di Domenica, M. (2013). Market research and the ethics of big data. International Journal of Market Research. 55(4), 2-13. This source considers the practice of amassing and analyzing big data largely from a marketing research perspective. It details the wide scope of data that is regularly stored and scrutinized regarding the lives of citizens.

ight to privacy has been under attack in recent years from many sources. Issues such as terrorism and technological development has provided an opportunity and an excuse to lessen the protections that have been previously awarded Americans, as well as citizens of a number of other countries, in the name of their own protection. Albeit the threats of terrorism are real, there are also a series of threats that come from the violation of citizens' right to maintain their privacy in their daily activities. It is not only an invasion of privacy from the governments around the world that is an issue, but private organizations are also able to collect an immense amount of intrusive data about their customers or target markets. A legitimate balance between these concerns must be reached and in a timely manner because there is a significant amount of evidence that this balance is uneven and…...

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References

Gellman, B. (2013, December 23). Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission's accomplished. Retrieved from The Washington Post:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/edward-snowden-after-months-of-nsa-revelations-says-his-missions-accomplished/2013/12/23/49fc36de-6c1c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html 

Sadowski, J. (2013, February 26). Why Does Privacy Matter? One Scholar's Answer. Retrieved from The Atlantic:  http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/why-does-privacy-matter-one-scholars-answer/273521/

Contemporary Political Issue: The War on Terror
Introduction

On September 20th, 2001, President George W. Bush proposed the new Office of Homeland Security to help confront a new threat to national security in the first step of what became the War on Terrorism (Select Committee on Homeland Security, 2004). One week earlier, Congress had signed off on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), allowing the president broad scope for using military force against countries or organizations who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided” terrorism (Ackerman & Hathaway, 2011). 17 years and more than $2 trillion later, the War on Terrorism continues with no sign of easing up (Amadeo, 2018). Though President Trump ran a campaign on getting American soldiers out of the Middle East and letting other countries handle the ISIS threat, the war on terror rhetoric out of the White House has continued unabated, with sights now set on regime…...

Hadoop is a file storage system that has become increasingly popular in contemporary society. Although it was technically developed last decade, its ubiquity did not truly arise until the current decade. It has already shaped this decade, and will more than likely play a substantial role in shaping this century, which will be noted for its developments in information technology. A thorough examination of the impact of Hadoop illustrates that it will shape the century because it facilitates Big Data, enables analytics for massive quantities, varieties, and expedience of data, and is open source.
Hadoop is the single greatest technological invention that has spawned the current phenomenon of big data, in which organizations and individuals are now able to process vastly greater amounts of data of a host of different types at speeds previously unthinkable. Big Data is used everywhere today, from department stores that monitor customers via smart phones and…...

Counterterrorism
Counter-Terrorism

Counter-Terrorism Framework

The author of this report is asked to answer to a number of questions relating to counter-terrorism frameworks. First, the author is asked to provide a revised framework for the national terrorism prevention and response agencies in the United States. Per the parameters of the assignment, there are to be at least three agencies involved in the revised framework. Subsequent to that, the author is asked to answer to how and when the agencies will interact and why. The author is asked what tools can be used to help the agencies function and do their jobs and that will be included in the framework summary. The author is asked to wrap up the paper by enumerating at least three policy and/or procedural recommendations that should be implemented to make the existing framework gel and function more effectively.

evised Framework

The existing framework for law enforcement and terrorism preparation and response is…...

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References

Boehm, E. (2013, August 20). New audit finds IRS can't keep track of its own software Watchdog.org. Watchdog.org - The Government Watchdog. Retrieved September 2, 2013, from  http://watchdog.org/101977/new-audit-finds-irs-cant-keep-track-of-its-own-software/ 

Cillizza, C. (2013, May 21). Everything you need to know about the IRS scandal. The Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - The Washington Post. Retrieved September 1, 2013, from  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/05/21/what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-about-the-irs-scandal/ 

DOJ. (2004, November 1). Special Report: A Review of the FBI's Handling of Intelligence Information Prior to the September 11 Attacks. Welcome to the United States Department of Justice. Retrieved September 2, 2013, from http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/0506/chapter2.htm

Poulson, K. (2013, August 29). New Snowden Leak Reports 'Groundbreaking' NSA Crypto-Cracking | Threat Level | Wired.com. wired.com . Retrieved September 2, 2013, from  http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/08/black-budget/

ight to Expression: The Fine Line of the First Amendment
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the enactment of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools equired to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (the PATIOT ACT), there has been a growing debate concerning the proper role of the government in protecting Americans while balancing their right to free expression. To determine the facts, this paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a discussion concerning the line between an individual's right to expression and the role of the government to protect its citizens from harm, including some salient examples of this conflict in the nation's past. An analysis concerning whether Americans have come any closer to reconciling these issues is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

eview and Discussion

On the one hand, the First Amendment to the U.S.…...

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References

Berg, C. (2013, September). Free speech lost in translation. Review - Institute of Public Affairs, 67(3), 18-23.

Munger, M. 92015, Spring). No place to hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. surveillance state. Independent Review, 19(4), 605-609.

Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 51-52, 1919.

Youm, K.H. (2004, Summer). The four freedoms of the First Amendment. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(2), 446-450.

Mann, Existential Technology
Just as Steve Mann's 2003 article "Existential Technology" appears to be a description and philosophical justification for the author's artwork, it could just as accurately be described as a work of eerie prophecy. Reading Mann's document a little over a decade after its initial publication gives the uneasy feeling that this conceptual artist has actually foreseen the future. Of course, this is in many ways the function of art, if we recall Ezra Pound's famous dictum that artists are the antennae of the human race, picking up cultural and historical signals before the rest of us do. But it is remarkable in 2014 to see just how much Mann was anticipating back in 2003.

lthough Mann describes himself in the article as someone who has "lived as a cyborg for 30 years" ( Mann 25) what he really means by this is that he has been incorporating computers and…...

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Although Mann describes himself in the article as someone who has "lived as a cyborg for 30 years" ( Mann 25) what he really means by this is that he has been incorporating computers and information technology -- often in the form of what he calls "in (ter)ventions," his neologism for inventions (gadgets) that also enact an intervention (a form of resistance) in the prevailing culture. But the things that Mann was resisting in 2003 are surely far more salient now than they were then. Although he names "surveillance and monitoring technologies" -- i.e., the nonconsensual recording of information about individuals by large governments or corporations -- as one of the chief subjects of his explorations, the examples given by Mann are along the lines of CCTV camera surveillance and records of credit card swipes. The sort of surveillance that was revealed by Edward Snowden's actions ten years later is so far beyond the level of what Mann was resisting in 2003 demands that we give Mann credit for extraordinary prescience.

Such concern with surveillance, though, is only one of many things in Mann's account that seems so new and salient in 2014 that it is astonishing to see how well he foresaw the direction in which daily life was heading. Mann discusses his "apparatus of computer-mediated reality (e.g. wearing a computer and living in a computer-generated world)" but this is a decade before the much-hyped Google Glass attempted to make a consumer item out of the idea. Indeed Google Glass sounds like it was inspired by Mann's account of his 2000 project involving his "EyeTap system, eyeglasses that cause the eye itself to function as if it were a camera" (Mann 21). Likewise Mann's 2001 project "Ouijagree" is meant to deconstruct copyright restrictions on software, and his discussion of it extends to the possibility for deconstructing the intellectual property whereby PDF documents are held -- it is worth noting that the same academic institution whose press published Mann's article in 2003, M.I.T., would play a substantial role in the prosecution (and arguably the suicide) of Aaron Swartz, founder of Reddit, who killed himself after facing extraordinarily harsh prosecution for the mass downloading of copyrighted academic articles and documents, in an attempt to make them available for free.

Of course the examples of Snowden, Google Glass, and Aaron Swartz all demonstrate that the philosophical issues that Mann was making central to his art in 2003 would become mainstream objects of concern ten years later. To a certain degree, this is a simple fact of Mann's area of interest: by making computing and information technology central to his concerns, he was arguably well-placed to see the ways in which surveillance and governmental control were central to the development of such technology from the outset.