Governments Right to Spy

Government's Right To Spy And Command Our Life The Way They Do The 9/11 attack saw over 3,000 Americans murdered by terrorists. The government was faulted, but there was a consensus that the U.S. government needed to take stern action. There was panic that made the congress to give the government fresh surveillance authorities. However, it attached an expiration date to the authority so as to allow for further deliberations after the end of the emergency.

Decades later, the law has been extended on a number of occasions, yet there has been no public discussion on how the law can be interpreted. There has been an expansion of the surveillance at all fronts regardless of the freedom created by the founders of the United States. The surveillance should make us safer without violating the liberties of the American Citizens.

This paper is a critique to the right of the government to spy on the lives of its citizens the way it is done by the security apparatus. Reliance on government agencies as a secrete body of law has dire consequences. Americans are not interested in knowing the details of the ongoing sensitive intelligence and military activities. However, in their capacity as voters, they have a right to know what the U.S. government thinks and what they are permitted to do.

This puts them in a better position to either ratify or reject decisions made on their behalf by the elected officials. In a nut shell, Americans acknowledge that intelligence will at some point be forced to conduct secrete operations. However, they don't believe that the agencies ought to rely on secrete laws. It is amazing that the Americans learned that Section 215 of the USA Patriotic Act has on several occasions been secretly interpreted to authorize for collection of phone records for the American citizens on unprecedented scale.

These are programs that help to identify the so-called dots. However, it is a fact that there will always be dots to collect, analyze, make connections and links. The government is in the process of collecting data from millions of Americans, based on secrete legal interpretation on statutes which do not expressly authorize such bulk collection. The question we ought to ask is what will follow next and when shall the Americans say enough is enough.

Do these surveillance programs violate the Citizen's civil liberties? The government draws a lot of powers from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It uses the powers to monitor communication from its citizens. In fact, it is now true that the NSA's activities are dangerous and jeopardizes democracy in America (Schneirer). After conducting investigation concerning intelligence abuses that were perpetrated in the previous decades, the church committee opined that the democracy of America and its fundamentals were under serious threats because of government surveillance.

The opinion is more relevant in the modern society. In the recent decades, NSA has been afforded more resources while the constitutional and statutory limitations have steadily been eroded. Advanced technology has moved surveillance to unprecedented levels. The growth of digital technology has changed the definition of the battlefield and the nature of the war fare. Also, the courts are playing a role in countering the achievements of our Founding Fathers.

The Quinnipiac (University) which is a respected poll established that most people thought that the government is encroaching a lot on the civil liberties of Americans. This is certainly a huge swing especially if we consider the outcome of the same survey a few years ago. It is also true that the number has continued to increase. The Americans have an opportunity to discuss the impact of government surveillance as they continue to get more information on the vice. More Americans are expected to start speaking out.

Soon, they will say that it is useless to settle for one priority and that the laws should be written so that they provide security and protect privacy. The laws need not be secretive (Do the National Security Agency Surveillance Programs Violate American Citizens' Civil Liberties?). There is a school of thought, which believes that keeping the surveillance laws secretive is important since it makes it easier to gain insight into terrorist activities and foreign powers.

If the logic is followed, then when the congress passed the foreign intelligence Surveillance Act in 1970s, they ought to have found a way that could make it secretive. This would make it difficult for the Soviet agents to know what the FBI surveillance authorities were doing. However, things did not work that way. The fundamental principles of American democracy require that the laws should not just be made public when the government's officials dim fit to do so.

The laws should always be in the public domain and open to the courts review. They should also be subject to changes by an accountable legislature that is guided by the public. America will have effectively killed democracy if they will not be able to learn how the government interprets and executes its laws. It is for the same reason that the congress chose to make U.S. surveillance public when the Cold War was at its peak (Do the National Security Agency Surveillance Programs Violate American Citizens' Civil Liberties?).

The intelligent community leadership is downplaying the privacy impact of PATRIOT Act on bulk phone records collection, which has significantly impacted on the privacy of millions of law abiding Americans. When the intelligent agents are able to tell, who called who at what time and what they discussed, it infringes on the lives of law abiding citizens. This is made worse by the ever vacuuming up location data on cellphone, which unfortunately turns the cell phones into tracking devices.

Although the government says this is not happening, the intelligence made it clear to the press that they have a legal authority to collect information in bulk regarding the location of the American citizen (The monitoring of our phone calls? Government spooks may be listening). What is worrying is that there is nothing in the PATRIOT Act that limits the bulk collection to just phone records. The act can be used to gain access to business records, medical records, credit card purchases, and collect and collate information on sensitive issues.

This information could then be used to develop a database on people reading magazines and books considered subversive as well as gather information on people who own guns. The government has unlimited access to information from law abiding citizens. Records held by schools, doctors, membership organization or even businesses could be subjected to bulk collection under the PATRIOT Act. The act gives the authority the power to delve into personal lives of law abiding citizens.

Allowing this to continue is an error, which demonstrates ignorance that is embodied in human nature. Also, it displays disregard for the responsibilities the Founding Fathers entrusted to us, to check the power of any arm of the government (Do the National Security Agency Surveillance Programs Violate American Citizens' Civil Liberties?). The scenario raises some critical questions.

What will happen to our freedoms, civil liberties and our democracy if we allow the government to carry on the way it does? Recent developments have shown that they have resolved to hold on to such authority. They have combined the ability to conduct surveillance on persons they choose with the influence and power to conjure up legal authority to run such surveillance stunts and eliminating accounting judicial oversight bodies is a recipe for undue influence over our system of government.

Without extra protection in law, each one of us can be tracked anywhere at any time. The technology that we consider important in our daily lives is a combination of phone bug, location tracking, listening device and a hidden camera (The government is spying on us through our computers, phones, cars, buses, Streetlights, at airports and on the street, via mobile scanners and drones, through our smart meters, and in many other ways). No American would accept a requirement to carry this device.

Therefore, we should reject the idea of the government using its powers to bypass such consent. There is no doubt that the men and women working with intelligence agencies in our nation are hardworking citizens and professionals. These committed Americans should be allowed to work while they feel secure by the fact that they are supported by the public for all they do. Such a desired scenario can be lost when senior leaders from government mislead the populace about the authority of the.