Essay about The NSA, Privacy and the War or Terrorism

After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 the United States became a very different place. This drastic change was caused by the initial emotional reactions that American citizens, as well as government leaders had towards the tragic event. The government, in an effort to assure that these events never happen again passed the USA PATRIOT Act, which is an acronym that stands for the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. The major goal of this act is to combat terrorism by giving the government more leeway in what areas they are allowed to use their surveillance tools and also to what circumstances these tools can be used. The major issue that arise with this act are the fact that many of the act can be seen as unconstitutional.

This Act may be cited as the "Uniting and Strengthening America Act" by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism. President Bush signed the Patriot Act on October 29, 2001. It passed and with no debate voted on; many members of congress did not fully read the act. Due to the anthrax scare many Congressman did not have access to their offices. Attorney General John Ashcroft silenced any debate by warning that anyone who contested the Act would be "akin to a traitor abetting the terrorist."(Podesta, 2001) Congress had rejected many of the provisions previously debated. It was a recycled compilation of many extreme "wish lists." In the post 9/11 wake of fear, it became a reality.

On September 11th, 2001 the future of the United States changed forever. With almost 3,000 people dying from a terrorist attack that spanned the Eastern U.S., new tactics had to be created to prevent an event like this from ever happening again. Forty-five days after the attack, the USA Patriot Act was passed (Source 5). While only some Americans approved of it, the act was created to protect from terrorism across the country.

The USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act) was a knee jerk reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001. The Patriot Act amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) and the Electronic Communications Act of 1986 giving more authority to federal agencies. With these revisions the government has unchecked power to search an individuals records. These records can be financial, medical, travel patterns, Internet usage, or even library usage. The government does not have to show probable cause that the individuals subject to these investigations are agents of a foreign power. The Patriot Act amends the Electronic Communications Act by allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation

On October 26, 2001, George W. Bush signed the Uniting and Strengthening America Act by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, better known as the Patriot Act, into law (“USA Patriot Act”). This act gave the National Security Agency and the US Department of justice the power to monitor domestic and international electronic communications. The goal of the act was to give federal and local agencies the power to monitor communications in order to prevent a terrorist attack. With the Patriot Act in effect, agencies could easily share information with each other without any restrictions. While the original intent was to allow federal agencies to monitor communications networks, the wording granted local agencies the same power. The Patriot Act was used to conduct domestic criminal investigations as well as counterterrorism operations. It was intended to be used as a way to prevent a major terrorist attack, but the Patriot Act had some controversial sections that gave the government certain powers.

Congress enacted the USA Patriot Act under President George W. Bush very quickly after the 9/11 attacks. It was signed into law by the President on October 26, 2001. The purpose of the USA Patriot Act was to prevent and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world and to improve law enforcement investigatory tools.

Shortly after the tragedy of September 11, 2001 that threaten the security and freedom of the United States, on October 26, 2001, Congress passed one of the most controversial act. The Patriot Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush was an effort to calm the fear of terrorism across the country and make American feel safe once again. The Patriot Act, on the surface, claimed to help strengthen American security by allowing them access to tools and whatever resources require to fight terrorism and ensure safety for the people. At the time, this act received tremendous support throughout the nation. However, as the people move on and fear begin to settle, some slowly realize the danger of the Patriot Act. The National Security Agency (or better known as NSA) were

The USA PATRIOT Act was a law passed six weeks after September 11, 2001, which is in October 26, 2001, created by George W. Bush. USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”. Which is ironic due to the disagreements about the act that can be described as it is unconstitutional. Which are caused by the fact that the government is invading the people’s privacy by going through our phones, history of everything that is electronically, messages, phone logs, etc. without having a legal contract by the government, and going against our natural (unalienable) rights. It also violates the Bill of Rights, however, mostly on the first and fourth amendment.

A few years ago president Bush put in place the patriot act within two months of the 9/11 attacks. This was to insure the safety of American people who were skeptical about American national security .The act wasn’t put in place to take away citizens rights but to help protect them. President Barack Obama thought it should be revised even more to protect the liberties of American people. He has lately extended the patriot act making it harder for American to believe that they have more liberties than security.

One of the worst, yet momentous events in U.S history occurred on September 11th, 2001. This event released a flow of patriotic fervor and a permanent fear among all Americans that they had also now become suspect to acts of international terrorists. This led to a lot of changes in the attitudes of the executive and legislative branches in the United States government. They came up almost immediately with new measures, which were supposedly against terrorism or terrorist threats. One of the principle acts passed by them was called "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001," also called the USA Patriot Act. This was signed and approved as law

Public Law 107-56 otherwise known as the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. (justice.gov) This law was instated in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The Islamic terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda, coordinated four different plane hijackings killing 2,996 people, and injuring 6,000+ others. (9/11 memorial.org) Just weeks after the attacks congress rushed to pass this bill, passing the senate 98 to 1, and the house 357 to 66 (justice.gov), so that we can have more security controls within the United States. It gives the United States government the same powers and tools used to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking in decades prior, to investigate current suspected terrorist. The Patriot act has several different titles that cover different grounds, all which have the same purpose of preventing future acts of terrorism. The patriot act allows the government to track and intercept any form of electronic communications of suspected terrorist in order to prevent any acts of terror, and also for intelligence gathering. The act also aids the government in securing borders, and removing those that are here with the intent to cause harm.

Privacy has endured throughout human history as the pillar upon which our authentic nature rests. Yet, in an age darkened by the looming shadow of terrorism, another force threatens to dominate the skyline and obscure the light of liberty behind promises of safety and security: government surveillance. As an employee of the NSA, Edward Snowden broke his vow of secrecy to inform the public of our government’s furtive surveillance acts, but does this render him traitorous? To answer this, we must first ask ourselves, traitorous to whom? When the very institution established to protect our fundamental liberties intrudes on our privacy from behind a veil of secrecy, should such informed individuals resign from judicious autonomy and

By being able to spy on “U.S.” citizens, protective agencies claim that such measures will be able to track terrorists in a heartbeat and foil their plans immediately based on the justification of the 9/11 attacks. However, it is known that the NSA has been around since 2005[4] and has not foiled any terrorist attack for the 8 years of its existence. [5] Matter of fact, the odds of a terrorist attack occurring, according to the Daily Kos, is 20,000,000 to 1[6]. That’s twenty million to one. With such a low risk of a terrorist attack occurring, why exactly does the NSA take such precaution in order to prevent it? But wait, wasn’t the bombing at the Boston marathon a supposed terrorist attack? How did the NSA not prevent that? Were they too busy trying to annihilate our Fourth Amendment rights, as

Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.

The Patriot Act was hastily passed just a month later October and it severely limited the privacy of Americans and gave unprecedented power to the government and private agencies to track innocent Americans, turning regular citizens into suspects.5 In addition, the great technological evolution and emerged of social media that occurred round the same time, and shortly thereafter, created the perfect storm for the emergence of the largely unregulated surveillance society that we live in today.6 The result is digitization of people’s personal and professional lives so that every single digital trace that people leave can be identified, stored, and aggregated to constitute a composite sketch of ourselves and its only getting worse. In 2008, passed the FISA Amendments Act, which expands the government’s authority to monitor Americans’ international communications, in addition to domestic communications.7 In short, after 9/11 the U.S is left with a national surveillance state, in which “the proliferation of government technology and bureaucracies that are able to acquire vast and detailed amounts of digital information about individuals with minimal or no judicial supervision and often in complete secrecy,” giving the government and corporations with access to the data that the government compiles the ability to single