Citizens, Congress should push for end to government surveillance By Patrick Ryan – Posted on October 14, 2013Posted in: Opinion Illustration by Mike Trujillo / Daily Titan Illustration by Mike Trujillo / Daily Titan George Orwell’s 1984 was meant to be a cautionary dystopian tale, not an instruction manual. America’s current mass surveillance state owes its existence to the Patriot Act, one of the most unpatriotic laws ever devised, and the National Security Administration to do its overly intrusive work. In 2013, NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of the NSA’s surveillance apparatus. Thanks to these revelations, it has come to be known that virtually every action taken online or on mobile phones can be tracked and is being tracked by the NSA. The NSA’s many surveillance programs, including PRISM, gives this shady government agency the ability to track and data mine email exchanges, phone calls, search engine searches and pretty much everything else done online. This lack of privacy is a real problem and should be a concern for the public. Firstly, the NSA’s domestic spying program and the Patriot Act are blatant violations of our constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment clearly states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Americans’ constitutional rights are written in stone, not on a whiteboard. Even so, the Bush and Obama administrations have erased the public’s right to privacy. Although President Obama opposed the Patriot Act before his election, he has become its biggest champion after coming into office. Obama renewed the Patriot Act and even expanded its powers to spy on Americans. The irony and hypocrisy is overwhelming. The Patriot Act should really have been named “Repeal the Fourth Amendment Act” because essentially that’s what it does. The Patriot Act enables the NSA to conduct searches and surveillance without warrants. Conducting warrantless searches is problematic at best. The reason why warrants are so important in protecting privacy is because they administer a system of checks and balances to prevent abuses. Typically, search warrants are issued by a judge after hearing the case and probable cause for such a search. This process insures the validity of the search and is in itself an oversight measure to ensure searches are conducted in a reasonable fashion. The problem with warrantless searches is that no one is watching the watchers. Without a rigid system of monitoring and policing searches, NSA employees and civilian contractors can virtually violate anybody’s privacy either mistakenly or intentionally. As a result, the NSA has been founded to be in violation of its own privacy rules. The immense power to surveil and monitor anybody is worrisome in itself. The NSA has also found a dozen of its employees in willing violation of privacy rules. In these cases, NSA employees intentionally spied on the private lives of their love interests; how romantic. This centralization of power is what the founding fathers feared most. Americans should always remain skeptical of massive government power. The NSA and Patriot Act violate the very principles the nation was founded upon. This isn’t a Democratic or Republican issue, it is an American issue. The NSA’s record of violating privacy rules, lack of accountability, overreaching power and the Patriot Act’s warrantless searches are a danger to the American way of life and our freedoms. Due to the data released by Snowden, more and more Americans are becoming aware and critical of the NSA’s actions. Congress should reflect the privacy concerns of their constituents by either scaling back or eliminating domestic spying programs in order to ensure the protection of our constitutional right of privacy.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 08:24:27 +0000
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