Wiretapping In The United States

Domestic Surveillance in the Unites States has been going on for decades without the public 's knowledge. Domestic Surveillance didn 't seem important in the eye of the American government. After the September attacks (9/11) congress started to treat Domestic Surveillance as a number one priority. After September 11th Congress passed a law to use military force for those responsible for the attacks in New York, NY. The go ahead with using military force did not give the President to use surveillance without a warrant. Congress started to pass legislation against counterterrorism efforts. The most controversial measures, including the 2001 USA Patriot Act that gave the US federal government the ability to collect and analyze private information that has identified itself with the United States of America.

The NSA program on surveillance began in 2001. This is when Congress authorized government officials to listen in on the phone calls and emails of those individuals suspected of engaging in terrorist activities (via the USA Patriot Act). It is designed to ensure that the intelligence community and law enforcement have the tools they need to track / monitor those suspected

Since the passing of FISA came after a widespread finding of warrantless wiretapping by a number of different government entities, Congress along with the Carter administration, needed to carefully craft a bill that not only reconciled national security needs to conduct domestic surveillance, but also continued to protect individual liberties such as that of the first and fourth amendments. The once top-secret Carter administration memos regarding FISA offer a first-hand glimpse at the thinking that went into

Over the past few years, government surveillance in the United States has become a widely debated issue with two completely different sides. The National Security Agency, a government agency known for it’s efforts in spying and surveillance, has been at the center of this issue since it’s founding in the 1950’s. The Cold War had just begun and the United States government was doing anything they could to find potential terrorists and communists. In fact, many famous people including Einstein were being spied on by the government to find citizens with potential ties to the Soviet Union. (New York Times - New Details Emerge from the Einstein Files; How the FBI Tracked His Phone Calls and His Trash) As the cold war came to an end in the early 90’s, NSA spying seemed to come to an end as well.

Communication surveillance has been a controversial issue in the US since the 1920's, when the Supreme Court deemed unwarranted wiretaps legitimate in the case of Olmstead v United States. Since telephone wires ran over public grounds, and the property of Olmstead was not physically violated, the wiretap was upheld as lawful. However, the Supreme Court overturned this ruling

The Patriot Act was introduced as a response to the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11th. It has radically changed the way in which the government operates in the investigations of people in and out of our country. It has broadened the powers of the federal government in the way in which they can obtain information on people. In this paper I will be discussing the ethical and moral issues of the expanded ability of wiretapping, search and seizure, the establishment of the FISA court, and end with the transparency of these practices.

Acts of terrorism are vicious and pitiless, taking the lives of innocent individuals. I believe that in order to stop these acts of rebellion, unconventional means of combating the threats are necessary, one of these being, wiretapping. In the article, Counterpoint: War on Terror and Wiretaps, the authors explain the controversial issue regarding the government tapping our technology. Although the process may seem excessive and invading to some, it will help save the lives of American citizens. It seems only obvious that someone should care more about the safety of their loved ones, than their text messages being exposed to the government. In the book, Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, it discusses a society in which the government

After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, an American public was shocked, flabbergasted, and lost for words for the first time since Pearl Harbor. Out of these fears the PATRIOT act was conceived; promising to help stop future terrorist plots the bill was initially met with high praise from the public and media. It was not for another decade that the side-effects of the patriot act were revealed to the world. The American public was appalled at the circumvention of their fourth Amendment rights. Still there is a clear divide between those who believe that the National Security Agency Is not violating the constitution and what they are doing is good for the betterment of the country and those who believe that their privacy and undeniable American freedoms were violated in part of the NSA spying with both parties bringing their own views and ideals to the field. The September eleventh attacks were the beginning of the end of privacy for American citizens the PATRIOT act which was signed a month later granted full access to the phones and computers of the people. It took over a decade for the public to become aware of the illegal spying that the NSA had conducted. The NSA spying is a complicated and controversial matter while there have been several judicial courts that have ruled against the spying there has also been just as many cases of the court 's finding the spying constitutional.

Although the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) already permitted the administration to wiretap on an emergency basis and apply for warrants retroactively, the administration maintained that FISA was too cumbersome when urgent issues of national security were at stake. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales offered two justifications for the legality of the domestic spying program, asserting that the president had the "inherent authority under the Constitution, as commander in chief, to engage in this kind of activity" and that Congress, "when it authorize[d] the president to use all necessary and appropriate force" against al-Qaeda in 2001, indirectly sanctioned it. Critics objected that the wiretapping infringed on civil liberties, sidestepped the legislative branch, and placed the president above the law. In August 2006, a federal judge in Detroit ruled the wiretapping program unconstitutional. However, in July 2008, Congress passed a bill overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—effectively legalizing Bush's secret program. The new law gave legal immunity to the telephone companies that participated in the NSA secret wiretapping program after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and broadened the government's ability to eavesdrop on those in the U.S. and abroad it suspects are linked to terrorist

However, critics challenged the constitutionality of FISA and the abuse of the government power under the First, Fourth and Fith amendments of the United States Constitution. The problem led to the erection of “the wall” that inhibited the information sharing between the intelligence and law enforcement communities. The expansion of FISA after the enactment of USA PATRIOT Act significantly broadened the authority of the Executive Branch for the electronic surveillance and removed the wall, allowing the flow of information among Intelligence Community in the fight against terrorism. However, the removal of the wall led to the tension between national security and civil liberties. The FISC review has clarified the requirements for the use of intelligence under FISA to limit abuse of the Executive power. However, much is still needed to be done to properly balance the national security concerns and privacy rights. Consequently, the role of the Congress as an oversight machine is strongly required to limit instances under which the Government may conduct unlawful electronic

NSA was established on November 4, 1952, by President Harry Truman. At the time Truman was sworn in as the 33rd president of the U.S. after Roosevelt’s unforeseen death. In hopes to end WWII the NSA was established and helped win the war by breaking German and Japanese codes and encrypted messages. Ironically Truman died in 1972 when the CSS and NSA joined forces. Seemed to be all fine and well using surveillance for good and winning the war. The people were happy when their troops came home. Where the NSA systems down when Bush became president? 9/11 did happen but no one could predict or find information on this

So my understanding of the wiretapping was included in the patriot act was because of the terrorist attacks in 9/11. They added this patriot act for it could prevent future terrorist attacks. According to npr.org "In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress approves the U.S.A. Patriot Act to improve the government's ability to stop future terrorist attacks. It includes provisions to help streamline the process of obtaining the necessary warrants to conduct eavesdropping" I think it’s a good idea but I also think its not. I think its good because that way they can catch terrorists and prevent them for doing danger to the people. But I think it’s not a good idea because they cant just wiretap people without knowing

Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.

The Thesis of The Patriot Act’s Impact on the Government’s Ability to Conduct Electronic Domestic Surveillance of Ongoing Cosmetic Communications by Nathan C. Henderson outlines that the American populous, more specifically the representatives said populous elects, should proceed with hesitancy when approving laws that allow privacy to be breached in the name of national security. Henderson asserts, in the article’s thesis, that The Patriot Act opens the door to the United States Government to breaching the privacy and extraneously surveilling citizens with no connection to terrorism. Moreover, the article maintains that,

It was due to brave men like Christopher H. Pyle and Senator Sam Ervin that people came to know that how the government was ignoring and violating the provisions to the constitution. This violation of rules and laws by the government led towards the formulation of foreign intelligence surveillance act. The primary feature of this act was as follows; "the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ("FISA Court") which allows the executive branch to secretly obtain warrants for electronic surveillance but only with strict judicial review"