I just read an article called “Big Brother is Listening” by author James Bamford and found many of his allegations very disturbing. The author gives a thorough and objective account of how the government has been increasingly acquiring more powers to peer into the lives of people in the name of national security. According to the author, the National Security Agency has the power to violate our privacy anytime. That could be considered already outrageous enough, but he considers that “the issue at hand since the revelation last December of the NSA’s warrantless spying on American citizens is not the agency’s access to the country’s communications network—it already has access—but whether the NSA must take legal steps in preparing to target the communications of an American citizen” . I wonder if that should be the main issue Americans should focus on.
Any American should agree with Bamford when he complains about the government unwillingness to stick to basic constitutional principles such as those established in the fourth amendment. Indeed, this principle was established to limit the government power to seize a person or his property (including correspondence) without a probable cause and a previous warrant issued upon that cause (U.S. Const. Amend. IV). However, ever since 2001 they don´t necesarily have to issue warrants to start listening to someone´s phone conversations, and a person could be put in the NSA watchlist if a shift supervisor has a reasonable belief that he or she might be a threat to the United States interests.
Nonetheless, what strikes me the most is the interest of the government to develop spying technology and the use they give to it. Their effort to have the capability to spy anyone person, organization or government, and the level of secrecy they put around it, is what I find more disturbing of all. Bamford correctly stated “history has repeatedly shown that simply having the ability to eavesdrop brings with it the temptation to use that ability—whatever the legal barriers against that use may be ” . Eavesdropping implies that the person being targetted would not know he is a target, because warning the person would beat the purpose. That raises the question: should the government possess that ability? My answer would be negative, even when it might be being used for our protection, when the day comes that we are ruled by a totalitarian regime, we will not have any possibility of freeing ourselves from it.
References
Bamford, James. "Big Brother is Listening." The Atlantic (2006). Web. 11 February 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/04/big-brother-is-listening/304711/>.
U.S. Const. Amend. IV.
