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File Name | S21-PF-12-PRO-NSA.docx |
File Size | 596.88 KB |
Date added | January 4, 2021 |
Category | Archived |
Tags | NSA, NSDA, Public Forum, Season 21 |
Author | Vance Trefethen |
The National Security Agency is tasked with collecting “signals intelligence.” It spies on electronic communications around the world much like the CIA gets information using human agents in other countries. Ending National Security Agency surveillance of US citizens and lawful permanent residents is the right thing to do. Intelligence agencies used to be directed to focus their surveillance and spying on foreign entities in foreign countries. US citizens are supposed to be protected from such activities by the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. In the 1970s, under investigation by a committee headed by Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, startling revelations came out about domestic spying. New legislation was enacted and reforms were put in place. Everyone thought the problem was solved. Then came Richard Snowden, a contractor working for NSA, who in 2013 published classified information detailing massive NSA spying on Americans. The Agency was collecting phone information, internet data, and other electronic records of Americans. Some of this ended up in the hands of the FBI, which happily took this as a back door way to conduct warrantless searches for crime investigations (or just for fun with no suspicion of crime at all) without the pesky interference of the Constitution. Americans’ freedoms are infringed, speech rights are chilled, and a state of fear descends on society when everyone thinks everything we say is being monitored.