NSA Persuasive Essay

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The United States government has conducted government surveillance to protect Americans dating back to World War II. The National Security Agency (NSA) was founded in 1952 by President Truman as a secret organization to gather intelligence (Heiligenstein). In recent years, the NSA has gained attention due to terrorist attacks and controversy involving invasion of privacy. The controversy has caused great debate surrounding the legal validity of the NSA and government surveillance. The resounding argument in favor of the NSA concerns the safety of the American people; politicians citing that government surveillance prevents terrorist attacks and saves lives. The US kept close observation on the Japanese following Pearl Harbor, which allowed America to crack the Japanese naval code known as the JN-25 code. The US Navy was able to anticipate the Japanese attack which lead to a victory at Midway and helped limit American casualties. In today 's day in age, the NSA is the only definitive way to gather information surrounding terrorism. According to Marc Thiessen, “Terrorists don’t have armies or …show more content…

The lives that the NSA save because of government surveillance is miniscule in comparison to the million of people that have had their privacy invaded. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution were created to address the abuse of power under British rule and set up a new form of government. The NSA is an example of an absolute power that disrupts basic liberties provided in the constitution. Most of the “terrorists” arrested in America post-9/11 have been dramatic fabrications of the FBI. Terrorist attacks are extremely rare, in fact the chances of being killed by a terrorist are 1 in 20 million (Van Buren). The Snowden scandal has proven that the US government has abused the power of surveillance. Government officials have blatantly lied about the information gathered by the

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