THE N.S.A. AND YOU: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY

     

     Over the course of the last week we have been inundated with a flood of reports from our friends, the media, regarding the N.S.A. and ‘whether’ or not they are monitoring all wireless communications in the United States through the program called PRISM. The reason that the caveat of ‘whether’ is included is because there is a small amount of debate over ‘whether’ or not the N.S.A. is actually listening to and reading through the information or just collecting it. A debate which will eventually land this program and its creators in front of the Supreme Court arguing over 4^th Amendment violations. Like a kid collecting baseball cards though, the N.S.A. is collecting info and saving it on just about every single American; looking for that prized terrorist trading card that will help complete their set. Although if recent experience is any indicator about the effectiveness of this method of data collection, we may all be in trouble.

               

     Looking over the past few years and the reasons attacks have been stopped there doesn't seem to be any real advantage or effectiveness to this approach of data mining. Except to make American’s feel like their sleazy Uncle Sam just showed up to another party drunk and tried to grope their mom. To begin, however, let’s look at a few of the attempted terror plots that this sort of data retrieval is supposed to advert. To start it seems only appropriate to delve in with the underwear bomber of 2009 since this all stinks to high heaven anyway. Just in case you forgot, back in 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a plane leaving Amsterdam and heading for Detroit on Christmas Day. What made this particular flight memorable was that while sitting in his seat, the would-be bomber attempted to set his crotch on fire. Being seen by a fellow passenger and subdued by one as well the underwear bomber had no success with his midair fiasco.

              

     Fast forward to one year later and change venues from Detroit to New York City. The city that never sleeps has had its fair share of terrorist scares throughout the years since 9/11 and one more came in Times Square on May 1, 2010. A young man named Faisal Shahzad parked a vehicle filled with fertilizer, propane tanks, gasoline canisters and other items on a crowded street corner in this iconic New York location. Once again, like his flying brother in arms, this plot wasn't stopped through the diligence and hard work of law enforcement. It was foiled by a vendor, who while peddling his wares to tourists that day happened to notice Shahzad’s car smoking slightly and so informed a police officer who was standing near him. Thus the bombers plot was thwarted and all was well in the Big Apple for one more day.

                

     Lastly, we need to look at the recent Boston Marathon bombings committed by the Tsarnaev brothers. Given how recently this occurred I will skip the details of what happened and focus more on how they were apprehended. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two, as you are all aware died during a police chase. His younger sibling, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would later be found hiding in a boat suffering from gunshot wounds. The important part about these events is the how they were found and not that they were; at least for the purposes of this conversation. Law enforcement and the N.S.A. claim that the PRISM program is an acceptable reach into the privacy of Americans because technically they are not listening to each and every phone call. They say that programs like PRISM help them to find and catch would-be terrorists. However, if you look at the examples provided here, three of the most successful attacks we have endured in recent years, two of which were busts, these programs seem to do very little if anything to help prevent terrorism. In the first two examples it was ordinary citizens who stopped the attackers by simply paying attention to something that was odd in their surroundings. In the Boston case, you can see definitive proof that PRISM and efforts like it are completely ineffective. Both brothers from what we have learned not only lived on their cell phones but also made many calls to known terrorist locations in the world. Something that PRISM, specifically, was supposed to have picked up on. Add on top of PRISM that Russian officials warned us about them, it would seem that secretly monitoring Americans serves no purpose other than to unite them against a government who has gone too far; something that will happen occasional when running the great experiment of Democracy.

               

      What programs like PRISM do allow for is the unfettered monitoring of American citizens; something that the United States government has allowed to become its primary occupation. Like many other ruling bodies before it, they are concerned for the safety of their population. So concerned it would seem that they cannot trust said population to its own thoughts. Putting aside the creepiness factor about programs like these, they are clear violations of American’s 4^th Amendment constitutional rights; which among other things protects citizens from unreasonable searches by their government. That being said, I would like to urge any who read this to write their elected representatives. Let them know that a balance needs to be struck but that creating a permanent record such as the one that you had in school is unacceptable. Because that’s what this is about. As it stands right now, if you step out of line they have reason for a warrant and all the records that they collected on you become fair play. So mistakes you made 20 years previously could come back to haunt you.

      Now that the diatribe is finished I would like to award a cookie. A big fat chocolate chip one with giant walnuts to Edward Snowden who is the N.S.A. contractor that leaked the information regarding the PRISM program to the press. Debates about whether or not this guy is a hero or a traitor are raging right now in Congress and the public at large. But here we call him a hero. No he’s not a hero of old, such as Hercules or Ron Jeremy, but he is a hero nevertheless. It takes copious amounts of courage to attempt to do something like leaking details about a government program this large and he apparently, according to interviews, is all too familiar with them. He didn't endanger lives other than his own to do it either unlike others who have leaked classified information to the press. What he did do was see something around him in society that was fundamentally wrong under the tenants of a free society and he did something about it. Shouldn't we all be so brave?