How Far Should We Let the NSA Go?
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Law, The War On TerrorismUSA TODAY has reported that the NSA’s domestic spying program is a lot larger than originally suspected. Turns out, since 2001, the NSA has been working with most major telephone service providers to log every domestic call made. One anonymous source says the agency’s goal is “to create a database of every call ever made” within the nation’s borders.
Apparently, the NSA is using this vast database to look for patterns that will reveal terrorist activities. There is no word as to whether, by monitoring the phone usage of millions of American citizens, any terrorist plots have been thwarted.
But this is what it’s come to�our government is tracking our calls. They aren’t listening in, but they know whom we call, when we called and how long we spoke. These aren’t just records of suspected terrorist. These are records of a great many of us.
I do not want to sound shrill or alarmist so I will point out that there is no evidence that any of this information has been used improperly. However, it does raise the question of exactly how far we think our government should go in monitoring us in the name of security. Does it stop at our phone calls? Or should our credit card purchases be monitored? How about our Internet usage? Our travel? What organizations we belong to? Certainly all that could be used to uncover patterns consistent with terrorist activity.
Technically, the phone call monitoring and all other kinds of monitoring could be done in perfectly good faith. If you aren’t a terrorist, you’d have nothing to fear. But I don’t have a limitless supply of optimism when it comes to the good faith of our government. I don’t instinctively mistrust the government but neither do I blindly assume that our government is somehow immune from corruption and unscrupulous leaders.
At some point we have to draw the line and say to our government “you can’t do that.� Not because they’re currently abusing their power but because they are opening too many doors that can too easily lead to abuse of power in the future.
I don’t want my day-to-day activities to be monitored�any of them. Not even for my own safety. A monitored society cannot be a free society. We need to draw lines. And we need to draw them now.
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May 11th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Matt Yglesias on this:
http://www.prospect.org/weblog/2006/05/post_336.html#002317
May 11th, 2006 at 10:49 am
Three Questions:
Why wasn’t this information volunteered earlier this year when the first reports surfaced?
Why were we only given part of the truth as an answer?
Are people still willing to sacrifice all manner of personal liberty in exchange for security, after being continuously scared by the Bush administration regarding terror threats?
May 11th, 2006 at 11:00 am
This should alarm everybody, regardless of partisan affiliation. We have gone WAY too far WAY too quickly and it’s time to stop.
And yes, the biggest question is, “Has this made us safer?” And even if it has, are we going to sacrifice a LOT of freedom for a LITTLE bit of safety And has this led to the imprisonment of anybody for something unrelated to terrorism? The questions you start creating after you do something like this are legion.
This news is deeply upsetting and I hope we, as a people, push back on this program hard.
Total Information Awareness indeed.
And by the way, JP, I noticed that your favorite books include 1984 and Brave New World. Any comment on the links between this information and those books?
May 11th, 2006 at 11:05 am
So if I follow the latest logic…gee, we aren’t doing anything illegal even though we aren’t using the FISA system…and we are talking to “some” members of congress…but they can’t tell you anything because the information is totally classified….and gee, we are ok with some investigative oversight…but unfortunately we can’t grant security clearance to the investigators.
Gee…it looks to me like we have a dictator in charge. He breaks the rules, he rewrites the rules, he changes the rules, and he answers to no one.
I only hope we can soon finish exporting our “democracy” to Iraq and the rest of the oppressed world so they can have the same rights that we do.
more observations here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
May 11th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Justin – Ha! Well, to anyone who’s read those two books, the similarities should be obvious. I’m consciously trying to avoid paranoia here, to remain level-headed. But between TIA, this program, and the two-way TVs in 1984..
The BNW link is more interesting, as I do question the “national security” defense for not revealing information. Honestly, in one sense it’d be pretty dumb for a terrorist to believe we were NOT tapping calls in one form or another; therefore, saying that we do is NOT revealing something people don’t suspect already.
I think the main reason programs like this are classified is because of the reaction currently taking place. This traces back to Vietnam–many argue (unsuccessfully in my opinion) that we lost that war because of lack of support from the public. Peer pressure is used to maintain support, and information that would diminish support is withheld in the name of “national security” — because revealing it would lower support, which could cause us to lose the war.
The objective is keeping the public (”betas”) satiated and supportive; whether the means used is “soma” or withholding of incendiary information, the outcome is the same.
May 11th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
My feelings on the subject are on the same line as Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin as one or both of them have been credited with the quote “Those who give up freedom for safety shall have neither.” I feel that when my time comes, the Good Lord will get me regardless of where I am or what I’m doing. If we have our liberties back, but I die in another 9/11, so be it so I don’t worry about it. We lived for decades without fear, why can’t we go back?
May 11th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Justin Gardner and ASC … it is not a matter of being paranoid. My prediction is that inside of (1) month this crap will be stopped. There will not be any issues about what the Republicans think or what the Democrats think … the American public will quickly react to this news in the same fashion that they reacted to the ports debacle.
JP – “Why wasn’t this information volunteered earlier this year when the first reports surfaced?”
Because they decided that we didn’t need to know!
“Why were we only given part of the truth as an answer? ”
We were not given partial truth … we were boldly lied to …. Bush went on TV and explained his program and said the following ..”We are only cheking calls where one end is not on US soil.”
“Are people still willing to sacrifice all manner of personal liberty in exchange for security, after being continuously scared by the Bush administration regarding terror threats? ”
THat is a real question, and I think we will see the answer shortly … and I think it will be ….Hell, NO!
Of course, the other piece of business that will sideswipe the administration this week is a call from the Attorney General in Great Britain to “close GITMO”.
July 22nd, 2006 at 9:45 pm
For those interested in security clearance obtaining, the following information may be of some value. There has been developed a psychological type ‘test’ that very accurately predicts success/failure to be eventually granted high-level security clearance status for persons who are being (or plan to be) processed/adjudicated by the federal government regarding potential granting of such status. The Personnel Security Standards Psychological Questionnaire (PSSPQ)was developed by a very senior psychologist while he was the Chief Research Psychologist in the USA’s then largest intelligence agency. Information regarding the PSSPQ and how to make arrangements to ‘take’ it can be found at:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspq.html