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Pros And Cons Of National Security

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National Security and Violations of Civil Liberties

National security has been a hot button topic issue for over a decade. After 9/11 President bush rolled out the Homeland Security Act and the USA PATRIOT Act. Part of the USA PATRIOT Act includes allowances for the NSA to surveil and collect data on American citizens. This issue gained notoriety and national attention when Edward Snowden came forward with information about how the NSA was collecting information from Verizon everyday on phone numbers in the U.S. and out. The issue here is whether or the NSA should be allowed to surveil and collect data on United State citizens. People who uphold the pro side of this argument believe that the NSA should and has the right to monitor …show more content…

Sales statement that “ Patriot Act helps prevent terrorism” is vague he doesn 't say by how much these policies decrease or prevent terrorism when looking at the data it does not support that there is any practical significance that these policies prevent terrorism.
Second Sale states that these policies “ simply lets counterterrorism agents use tools that police officers have used for decades”. There are several problems with this statement. The use of his word “simply” oversimplifies the issue and downplays the importance of the topic. The comparison is vague Sale lacks pertinent information as to the differences in the policy that requires a warrants for police officers and no warrant just “good faith belief that information should be disclosed” for counterterrorist agents to gain phone records and …show more content…

I would like to be safe and have all those I love to be safe too. I believe this could potentially leave me open to the error in logic of wishful thinking in believing that these policies will keep me safe. The source I chose to evaluate was Nathan A. Sales he is a lawyer from George Mason University School of Law. He worked at the Justice Department, he helped write the Patriot Act, he also worked deputy assistant secretary of homeland security.
In an article written for the NEW YORK TIMES entitled The Patriot Act Is a Vital Weapon in Fighting Terrorism, Sales makes the

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423 Words | 2 Pages

The USA Patriot Act, also known as "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" was a rushed act passed 45 days after the devastating terrorist attack on the twin towers September 11th, 2001. It was composed with the intention of finding and prosecuting international terrorists on American soil, but consequently violated the constitution. In addition, the Patriot act allows surveillance on all emails, internet, and cell phones to try and catch terrorists. Regardless, the act ended up having more power than primarily planned as stated in the CNN debate on the patriot act. America was founded on the principle of individual liberties and the pursuit of happiness in the context

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567 Words | 3 Pages

Overall, the Patriot Act may have helped to prevent terrorism, but it came at a cost. Before 9/11, there were a few other terrorist attacks that alerted Americans. One such attack was the Oklahoma City bombing. The bombing occurred in 1995. A truck containing explosives was driven to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and it was detonated.

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953 Words | 4 Pages

The moment that the Twin Towers fell in New York, America became destined for change. In the wake of these attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was quickly passed through congress, and signed by then-president, George W. Bush. The act itself gives the FBI and other government agencies the ability to do and use certain methods, many of which are already used by other law enforcement organizations, to help prevent future terrorist attacks. Since then, this piece of legislation has been the center of much debate and controversy. But, there is ample reason to believe that the Patriot Act is needed and effective.

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1203 Words | 5 Pages

Debates focus on violations of civil liberties. There are also questions about the appropriateness of the Act because it was passed and signed into law without extensive review. As the United States continues to experience terror threats and attacks, it is expected that the patriot act will continue to take effect. Civil liberties throughout American history have always expanded in peacetime and contracted during emergencies and wartime. During the Civil War, the two world wars, and the Cold War, Congress, and the president restricted civil liberties, and courts deferred.

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146 Words | 1 Pages

In conclusion, the USA Patriot Act has long enabled law enforcement to remain above the rules and regulations of the United States legislature. It has resulted in distrust of the American people towards their enforcing bureaucracy. The citizens of the United States have lost their civil rights and have been treated as criminals in penalty of an unknown crime. For too long, police have been able to abuse their power. The Patriot Act has destroyed the public opinion of law enforcement due to technological advances and information collection.

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748 Words | 3 Pages

Now in today’s standards, you only have freedom of semi-privacy that the Patriot Act believes is non-threatening. By them monitoring your texts, emails, history along with things you look for in search engines you never truly free to say anything or look up anything you want. Also what followed after this act were the random abductions of people. They take the “random,” person and ship them to another country to loophole their laws of not permitting torturing someone in this country. Instead they hire other countries to do their dirty work.

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852 Words | 4 Pages

The Patriot Act was designed to help law enforcements in the fight against terrorist, future terrorist attacks, and to help gather information. A positive result to the Act is that it gives an increase of surveillance systems and allows the federal government to capture and monitor many different ways to communicate. An example of this would be, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) development and use of an intercepting program called the Carnivore. This Program allowed the FBI to capture, record, and sort digital communications like a computer email or a text message. The FBI discontinued the Carnivore program in 2002, the organization wanted a more gainful product instead.

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419 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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437 Words | 2 Pages

Subsequent, to the September 11th,2001 terrorist attacks, the Department of Justice proposed The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act) to prevent future terroristic attacks. According to Preserving Life and Liberty article, the PATRIOT ACT has played an imperative part in “a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from plans of terrorist dedicated to destroying America and our way of life.” Further, Rosemary Jenks emphases in her article “A Summary of the Anti-Terrorism Law’s Immigration – Related Provision” that the PATRIOT Act focuses mainly on “reinforcing the arsenal of tools available to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and federal prosecutors for identifying and disabling terrorist networks operating both

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679 Words | 3 Pages

The second source opposes the Patriot Act for it abruptly and illegally interferes with the privacy of individuals. Thus, millions of people in the United States are having their Sixth Amendment violated because of this act, rather than eing protected from illegal terrorists. In addition, the Patriot Act was also re-written, making it legal for surveillance on any person in the country without them being aware of it. It is obvious this new part of the act is illegal and unconstitutional because people are not allowed to be listened to without permission. The source also states that a judge said the act

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183 Words | 1 Pages

Some people may think that the 14th amendment does a poor job of protecting people’s rights. In document five it explains how on September 11, 2001,with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, it has caused video surveillance in the United States to increase. For example the U.S has programs that use facial recognition that help match photographs of criminals faces to the criminal. Another program that we use helps prevent suicide bombers from attacking. Some people may think that prevention of terrible events reoccuring or occurring is a good thing, but using security systems everywhere may be a violation of their rights and privacy.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

“At least 42 terrorist attacks aimed at the United States have been thwarted since 9/11” (Reality). The majority of people know about the tragedy that happened on September 11th, 2001, but not that many people know about what came to be after the event; the Patriot Act. This act is the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” (Miller). The Patriot Act got put in place by the President and almost got a unanimous vote to pass it nearly ten days after. It was later used to take down many of the 42 attack plots.

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523 Words | 3 Pages

With the rise of the digital age, the monitoring of this information becomes crucial to security. That is why we must let the NSA be, and that is why I must negate this resolution. Now simply put, the US needs the NSA, as they are one of the few possibly effective anti-terrorist methods today. Political commentator Marc A. Thiessen claimed that there are only three methods in the modern age to combat and prevent terrorism: Interrogation, Penetration, and Signals intelligence. As for interrogation, Executive Order 13491 of 2009 prohibits inhumane, but effective methods of interrogation.

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1030 Words | 5 Pages

Civil liberties are rights guaranteed to citizens in the Constitution that the government cannot interfere with, however, in the name of national security, they do. The government sometimes finds it necessary for Americans to give up some of their basic rights to keep the nation protected, but many people find this unnecessary. A law-abiding citizen’s extremely personal information should not be essential to finding terroristic threats within this society. Under no circumstances should an American citizen’s civil liberties be violated in a time of war or crisis, because those are assured rights that are most valuable to their freedom during national conflicts.

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1315 Words | 6 Pages

People claim that nowadays they are living in surveillance society because Big Brother in twenty first century is keeping a close eye on people’s daily life. If so what is the meaning of Big Brother? The word Big Brother first introduced in George Orwell’s book named 1984. He said that “Big Brother is Watching You. ”(George Orwell, published year).

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