At different times in U.S history the government has disputed about certain actions that limited civil liberties. Some include the Executive Order 9066 which relocated Japanese Americans in 1942 and the USA Patriot Act in 2001. These acts impacted the United States majorly. They both occurred after a tragic event took place and the government wanted to protect themselves, the people, and the country. The Executive Order 9066 was passed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941.
One was the Homeland Security Act, which was enacted in 2002. The primary mission of this act is to prevent terrorist attacks. Under this act, the secretary of homeland security has the authority to control investigations that require access to information needed to prevent terrorism . This allows authorities access to PHI without getting consent
Key topics that relate to this include PRISM, the surveillance program ran by national security agency; the death of Trayvon Martin; and the Google glasses, which are good examples of why it is necessary for the government to have a watchful eye over our society. PRISM, a highly secretive surveillance program run by the national security agency is a controversial topic that has been
Part two, Covert Action, of Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, by Stephen Kinzer, presents situations in Iran, Chile, South Vietnam, and Guatemala where covert actions were used to abolish governments that the United States claimed had communist influence and intentions. These threats were misguided, but the excuse was used to justify the actions to the public. The true intention of these interventions was to protect American businesses in foreign countries. These interferences are still causing problems for all countries involved.
Two months later, in June 1917, the United States Congress passed and president Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act, which defined espionage during wartime. In May 1918, the Sedition Act was enacted; thus, greatly expanded the meaning of the Espionage Act. This series of law, known collectively as the Espionage and Sedition Acts, restricted some civil liberties and raised great disputes. “Was Wilson right in passing the Espionage and Sedition Acts?” and “To what extent is it acceptable to limit a citizen’s civil liberties during wartime?”
One group that argues this is the American Civil Liberties Union, which strongly disagrees with the Patriot Act. They have stated that investigations into the Patriot Act, “reveal thousands of violations of law,” (ACLU), while this is simply not true. One controversial piece of the Patriot Act are roving wiretaps. These allow government investigators to follow and put surveillance on certain people, rather than certain devices, so that they may save time and effort. According to Nathan Sales, a law professor at George Mason University, “Federal courts agree that Title III’s roving wiretaps authority is constitutional and… provides strong support for constitutionality,” (Sales).
Congress nominally had oversight over the CIA’s covert actions from its establishment in 1947, within the two houses’ respective Armed Services Committee and Appropriations Defense Subcommittee (Van Wagenen 2008). According to James Van Wagenen, the DIA Chair at the Joint Military Intelligence College, there was, “little involvement of Congress as a whole,” at the time (Van Wagenen 2008). Generally at the time, real acknowledgment of the covert actions within the Congressional committees was limited to the chairmen, ranking members, and those senior staff who were charged with ensuring that the Defense Budget reflected the CIA’s needs (Van Wagenen 2008).
The USA Patriot Act was signed into law on Oct. 26, 2001, due to the need for cooperation among all levels of security. Police and other department agencies were given powerful authority and encouraged to share information. This is to meet the goal for a safer America in times of turmoil including international affairs. But as the years have passed and as terrorist attacks seem to cease, people have begun to question if there’s too many restrictions on law enforcement were called off.
An illustration of this would be the passage of the Patriot Act in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The Patriot Act granted law enforcement agencies expanded authority to search and monitor anyone suspected of involvement in terrorist activities without obtaining a warrant from a judge. This was considered an infringement on civil freedoms since it allowed the government to conduct surveillance on its citizens without first providing them with a fair
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows U.S. intelligence agencies to acquire foreign intelligence information by monitoring foreign persons in the USA and abroad. This act ensures that intelligence agencies can respond in time to terminate a security threat. The most important part of this act, the Section 702 forbids deliberate monitoring of US citizens and their communication. Technically NSA has been violating this act ever since it has been enacted in 2008 because, as we know, they have been monitoring all US citizenry.
Espionage and the Fourth Amendment are not compatible especially when people get accused for no legitimate reason. After the September 11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York. George W. Bush issued more policies to expand espionage agencies to ensure that future terrorist attacks can be prevented. Some people might argue that “preventing the loss of American lives requires some restriction of civil liberties” but other people say that “the war on terrorism is different from traditional wars and thus requires that government officials exercise special care to maintain civil liberties” (Espionage and Intelligence Gathering 114). Having civil liberties is one of the few rights that American citizens can have.
This is why oversight within the intelligence agency is so important: although oversight in congressional terms is used for governing the intelligence community and setting budget plans, oversight in the intelligence community is used to make sure no agency abuses its power as the turn of the 21st century began with the War on Terror increased surveillance on citizens. The example used earlier for moral and ethical issues in intelligence was the examination of Soviet era maskirovka a which was defined as Russian military deception tactics during World War Two in the Cold War. Dressing in Afghan army uniforms for surprise attacks and wearing white uniforms to camouflage in the snow were all moral and ethical issues that resembled guerrilla tactics that are often shunned in war. This is directly related to the legitimacy of covert actions since they were primarily used during the Cold War by the United States to overthrow communist and left-leaning governments to stop the spread of communism. However, after that era passed and public media became popular through technology, covert actions, and spies are at extreme risk if agencies ever use human intelligence.
Wiretapping has helped public safety and is a crucial item to be used when in suspicion of terrorism and keeping America
The main issue in the Snowden controversy is the conflicting rights of private individuals and the US government with regard to the use of telecommunications and the internet. There are ethical issues surrounding this controversy and the most applicable ethical approach for this case is “Ethics by Rights Approach”. As a background, the reason why US government had declared Edward Snowden a traitor is his involvement in the leaking of about 1.7 million confidential US documents, 15,000 Australian intelligence files and 58,000 British intelligence files from the National Security Agency (or NSA) to the public. These confidential information were acquired by the NSA through the PRISM program by collaborating with big internet companies such
(Bilton, 2013) Surveillance of search engines permits information to be monitored so that if any hazardous search word like how to make bomb is looked it up several times by someone then it can be identified (Anon, 2014). Also, watching over the public assists police to capture crime suspects so that government organizations can protect national security (mass surveillance 위키피디아) To be specific, after terrible incident occurred in September 11, 2001, government of United States enacted the Patriot Act which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. The act was signed by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001 in the name of declaring war with terrorism. (위키피디아) The law grants the right to Federal Bureau of Investigation to profile people who fit certain stereotypes so that potential crime and potential terror can be prevented.
