NSA paper

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It's the stuff that spy novels are made of and calls to mind popular authors such as Ian Flemming, John LeCarre’, and Tom Clancy. Recent news articles about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) electronic surveillance data-mining programs targeting US citizens are so far-fetched they read like good espionage thrillers. Unfortunately, these recent reports seem to be true based upon information from several whistleblowers including William Binney, Russell Tice and Edward Snowden. These brave individuals, who stepped forward risking their reputations, careers and personal safety, revealed that the NSA has engaged in wiretapping, monitoring, and recording phone calls, emails, text messages, and social media of US citizens. The United States government has been abridging citizens' rights to privacy and violating the fourth amendment of the constitution through these types of covert operations. Probably the most well known of these whistle blowers is Edward Snowden, who worked as a computer analyst for the CIA and as a subcontractor to the NSA. Interestingly enough, Snowden’s revelations about the government’s mass surveillance of US citizens are not new news. As early as 2001 an NSA high-ranking official named William Binney revealed that the agency had developed very expensive Internet surveillance programs including “Trail Blazer” and “Thin Thread.” Binney claimed that the NSA stepped up its surveillance of US citizens following the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. Binney, considered “one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in National Security Agency” resigned from the NSA in late 2001 because he “could not stay after the NSA began purposefully violating the Constitution.” Binney c... ... middle of paper ... ... are necessary to protect our freedom, it is debatable weather they are in our best interest. It is not really evident that these operations have actually protected U.S. Citizens. Is it right to sacrifice our freedom for safety? According to Benjamin Franklin, “They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” And was it not Patrick Henry who said that “Give me liberty, or give me death!”? What happened to the strong affection for freedom and liberty that our founding fathers had hundreds of years ago? Why do people not seem as interested in their rights today as the generations before them were? Perhaps this is the reason why the U.S. Government has been able to get away with so much. Since this nation was founded on the right of people to be free, US citizens must oppose… and …. Call to action…??

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