Edward Snowden: The National Security Agency

In 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the Bush administration signed the USA/Patriot Act that revised the U.S. surveillance laws. It significantly expanded the government’s power on spying on its own people. The Act is implemented through the nation’s security system, the National Security Agency (NSA), to protect the U.S. citizens from further terrorist attacks. For the past recent years however, the NSA has been heavily criticized by the public after Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee, leaked the information of the NSA program in 2013. After this event, many people have been arguing whether the government through the National Security Agency have crossed the limit on the people’s liberty and privacy. In light

Dept. of Defense with its primary functions to be, “to collect and analyze communications intelligence information and data and to protect the security of U.S. national security systems and information. The NSA also engages in antiterrorist computer network operations” (nsa.gov). As an intelligence agency, the NSA have been working secretly and behind the people’s back. After the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, the government through the NSA have more power than before. It expands the power in several areas, one of them is allowing the government to access to personal records held by third parties. This could be done without having to show or prove that the records will be useful or related to criminal activity, leaving an unchecked government power to go through people’s personal records whenever they want to. This is clearly unconstitutional because it violates the 4th amendment which says “the government cannot conduct a search without obtaining a warrant and showing probable cause to believe that the person has committed or will commit a crime” (aclu.org). It is clear that the government is violating the people’s right but, no one has actually brought it up into attention and complained about

Why can’t they be shut down? The answer is, because NSA is actually useful for the country. The agency may be controversial and not popular in the eyes of the public but, the NSA is arguably one of the most important organization in the nation’s security system. This is also the reason why some still support the NSA. President Barrack Obama even claimed that, “the programs have been influential in preventing terrorist attacks” (businessinsider.com). In other words, the NSA still play a big role in keeping the U.S. safe. Obama is clear that he is behind the NSA however, the Obama administration called for “an end to the NSA’s ability to store phone metadata” (businessinsider.com). Which leads to the new bill that was passed recently in reforming the post 9/11 surveillance measure. This means that the President supports the NSA but realizes that some things need to be changed in order to not violate the people’s