“We shall be carrying out everything according to plan. There is no need to change course. Aziz only needs to tweak a few wires.” A simple email correspondence worded in a similar manner as the fake excerpt above would seize the attention of the newly created Department of Homeland Security. Buzz words and phrases such as; “according to plan”, “change course”, “wires” or even my son’s name “Aziz” would perhaps be enough suspicion to believe me to be involved in terrorism. Legislation passed by the US Congress gives the NSA, FBI, CIA and other government bureaus the right to monitor citizens’ correspondences. Government monitoring of phone calls, personal emails, websites citizens visit, and searches that they perform on Google is an evil practice that does not keep Americans safer, but violates personal liberties.
Scholars and theologians of the 16th century understood the necessity to protect the people’s privacy from their governments. In America’s infancy, opinions were split as to how the country should be governed, yet the majority if not all understood the importance of a safeguard for the people’s liberty. Spelled out in the IV Amendment of the Constitution it reads:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, and 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.
To conduct unreasonable searches is a form of terrorism in itself. When Germany annexed Austria, the soldiers were ordered to invade the homes of non-Jewish citizens in order to find Jews who would have been evading capture. It is widely known that the Germans, under the reign of Adolf Hitler, practiced eugenics thereby slaughtering millions of undesirables. The Jews were among the undesirables. Austrians feared associating with Jews. It was rare to find them helping one. The Austrians were terrified of the German government. Let it be said that any congressman or women who voted for the unconstitutional search of citizens private effects has not read the Constitution, Declaration of Independence or any of the writings from the time of this country’s founding or worse-they have chosen to ignore them and are perhaps following a fascistic path. The colonists knew of the oppression that came when a government threw out the rule of law. They knew it and many lost their lives to through it off. Obtaining the legal documents, supported by an oath, before a warrant is issued maintains the notion that the people are to be protected from unjust suspicions. However, Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, said, “[Without]…retroactive liability protection, [companies’] general counsels, as an obligation…would tell them not to cooperate with us….The tragedy is it would slow our efforts; it would make us less effective”(qtd. In Mass). Even though “companies’” (such as AT&T) general council would discourage them from cooperating with DHS because of the illegal nature of the job, Mr. McConnell does not seek a warrant for a suspected guilty person, but immunity for companies that would partner with him to spy on every citizen that he deems suspicious.
As hard as it may be to parallel the US government with Nazi Germany, one way to control a population is to keep them in continual fear so as to give the sense of the need to be protected. Therefore, the people would give up liberties willingly. Yet with Legislation such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) or the Protect America Act (PAA) one would have a fear of what to say or even read not wanting to be suspected of terrorism. As one writer notes and quotes James Madison
“The president… played the al-Qaeda card to full advantage. Now might be a good time to recall the warning once uttered by James Madison: ‘If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.’ Madison’s words alluded to the time-honored principle that a people who normally would guard their freedom jealously, often are willing to sacrifice some of that freedom if they can be convinced that a foreign enemy poses a greater threat.”(Mass)
One proponent of the Patriot Act would think that Mr. Mass’ assessment a bit paranoid. W. E. Jacobs argues that the regular business of running a library; collecting fines, storing patrons information is a matter of government watchfulness. He also contends that using those records to combat terrorism would fall under the same government watchfulness, and shouldn’t be seen as an attack on civil liberties (Jacobs). I am not as confident. Under such ambiguous language as in the aforementioned legislations, just about anyone could be suspected of terrorism. Curiosity and inventiveness would be curbed for fear of suspected motivations and intentions thereby being assumed guilty before proven to be. One example of this would be my internet search for “atom bomb”. Being curious about a statement supposedly made by Albert Einstein regretting his part in building the bomb, I decided to do the search. In the back of my mind I was wondering how many alarms were going off at the NSA. Certainly many Americans are not drawing the same conclusions that I am; however does that warrant the lost of their right to privacy?
If one assumes that our rights are derived from a source other than government, legislators removing the most basic right of privacy reduces a person from a citizen to the property of the State. The architects of this nation would abhor what Washington has done. America’s foundational document states clearly that the people are not the property of its government; “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….” Every citizen in the United States is issued a number at birth. Unless one desires to cease being a person residing in the country they will take a number; an action that could otherwise leave one destitute. The slippery slope of marking people has no end in sight. In the summer of 2008 my states governor refused to accept the National ID card. On the horizon, the RFID chip will be implanted in every citizen used for identification commerce and whatever else its servant government would deem necessary for the good of the nation.
The argument for tapping into citizens private effects has been said to be a legitimate way of protecting the people and is only limited to suspects who would seek to harm America. The evidence has shown that the orchestrators and attackers of the 9/11 disaster used telephone, email, websites and even public library facilities to carry out their plan. The same tools that the US government maintains that is needed to continue its work, without interruption are basically the same as were used before the 9/11 attack and in no way prevented it. Lisa Graves and Kate Rhudy from SOUNDING OFF mentions that the FISA bill, passed in the late 1970’s, offered spying tactics designed to defend against terrorism that would, maintain legality, and the rights of the people ensured by the Constitution (Graves). Proponents of measures such as the Patriot Act would content that Americans should be willing to give up a little bit of liberty for security. However the exchange would not be liberty for security but for fear. Americans would fear what to do or say for dread of the State’s eyes and ears condemning them. With all of the talk of protecting America from terrorist, it is strange that the immediate cause of the attacks of September 11th has almost completely been ignored by Washington and most news media on the left and the right of the political spectrum. The CIA has a term, blowback, that explains the acts of terror committed by Middle Eastern people, yet that intelligence has been unnoticed. At the time of its signing the intent of the Protect America Act was to be temporary; however President George W. Bush requested that the measure be extended-indefinitely.
America has embarked on a journey that would take it to a strange new world. As we hurl through time and space with our public-private documents open for administrative scrutiny where might we land? I know that a Pandora’s Box has been opened. What horrors will proceed from it? Only time will tell.
Graves, Lisa, and Kate Rhudy. "Warrantless wiretapping: unconstitutional and unwise.(SOUNDING OFF)." National Voter. 57. 3 (June 2008): 21(1). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Greenville Technical College Library. 6 Nov. 2008
Jacobs, W.E. “Point: Access to Library Records is Needed to fight Terrorism.” Point of View: Government Access to Records p2-2 (2007): p1. Points of View Reference Center. Greenville Technical College Library, Greenville, SC. 12 Nov. 2008
Mass, Warren. “To Protect America, protect privacy” The New American 23.22 (Oct. 29, 2007): 18(2). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Greenville Technical College Library, Greenville, SC. 6 Nov. 2008http://ezp.gvltec.edu:2069/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=OVRC&docId=A17028807&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=gvltec_main&version=1.0>.
United States. “It is Vital that congress Not allow the Core Authorities of the Patriot Act to Expire.” Preserving Life &Liberty.
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