The United States National Security Agency, or the NSA as it as popularly referred to, is in some hot water. On Monday, allegations came from Europe that NSA has spied and collected information from foreign leaders for almost a decade. Allegedly, The NSA collected information from 35 world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the United States’ closest allies. This espionage has left many around the world feeling uneasy and suspicious of the United States, and President Barack Obama claims not to have known about this espionage. This is not the first round of trouble for the NSA, either. Last May, former CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden released confidential documents detailing the NSA’s surveillance practices. This included the ordering of American phone companies to send extensive call records and logs to the NSA. Rightfully so, this left a feeling of unrest among Americans. Many Americans were concerned over the scope of these surveillance practices and it asks the question: Just how much do the NSA and federal government know about our daily lives?
It is important to clarify these practices employed by the NSA are not actually illegal. Passed in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was meant to curtail many illegal surveillance practices used by the United States and it was intended to provide guidelines about what the NSA was and wasn’t allowed to do. However, 35 years later this act is having the opposite effect. The NSA has abused the vague nature of FISA to justify these surveillance practices, many of which are more invasive than those that gave rise to the act in the first place.
When news first broke of Snowden’s leaks, I was uncertain how I should feel. I was not sure if I felt Edward Snowden was a patriot or a traitor. For the most part, I took the nonchalant approach, and said I did not care. After all, what would the federal government want to do with me? They couldn’t possibly have anything against a 19-year-old college sophomore. I felt since I had nothing to hide, there was no reason to be concerned. As I started to do more research about the issue, my opinion began to change. I began feeling these practices were wrong and invaded on the freedom and privacy of Americans. I can remember one particular night that really changed my opinion on the issue. On this night, a few of my friends and I were discussing Snowden when one of them told a story about a man who lived in a Middle Eastern country with a dominant and oppressive government. The government had started with little invasions of privacy until it became an oppressive and brutal government. At the time, I was adamant that there was no way citizens would allow this to happen in the United States.
When I went home that night, I was curious about the United States’ history of surveillance so I did some research. I was shocked to find out this wasn’t the first time the United States had infringed on the privacy of its citizens. Whether it be unlawfully opening mail or conducting warrantless searches, the intelligence community in the United States has a long history of overstepping its boundaries in the name of national security. This is why citizens must put their foot down now. As shown in the history of the United States, the intelligence will stop at nothing and violate the privacy of citizens if they believe it will increase national security. Who knows where these invasions of privacy will stop? Americans must say enough is enough and demand an end to these intrusive surveillance practices. The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the NSA has violated this extensively. It is not okay for the NSA to continue to violate the fundamental rights of hundreds of millions of Americans, and these practices must be ended now.
Do you agree the NSA is being far too intrusive with their surveillance practices? Should we demand and end to such practices? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
