Several German publications reported recently that the NSA has been tapping the phone of the German Chancellor. They went on to state that President Obama had been given this information and had done nothing about it. When James Clapper the head of the NSA was questioned about this he responded unapologetic that this is one of the basic pillar's of American intelligence.
The real issue here is not espionage involving foreign allied officials but the surveillance of their citizens. Gen. Keith Alexander when confronted on the need for oversight of these extensive programs stated "It is much more important for this country that we defend this nation and take the beatings than it is to give up a program that would result in this nation being attacked". This is the normal rhetoric that comes from Washington when asked about invading our privacy. It is always in the name of national security.
One might ask themselves, if we are not doing much here about the NSA watching us when will be time for the American citizens to protest? Waschinski of Yahoo states ” But Alexander made no apology for the NSA's activities and reiterated his denial that the secretive agency was scooping up millions of phone records from French and other European citizens”.
Has the United States gone too far? There may come a point where another country will not accept this and it could start a war. There is a simple solution here and a fine line between invading privacy and protecting the national security of the United States. Waschinski went on to state, “And, in another embarrassing chapter for Washington, the United Nations said it had received an assurance that US agencies would not bug its secret communications in the future. Conspicuously, the United States could not promise the world body it had not been spied upon in the past.”
We are beginning to cross that line and there must come a time where the citizens stand up to stop a possible war that the NSA may cause. I for one do not want to be involved in another war or spied on. On the other hand I want the United States to keep us as safe as possible and there may be no other way to do that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/us/politics/u-s-intelligence-officials-defend-surveillance-operations-on-capitol-hill.html
http://news.yahoo.com/european-spy-services-shared-phone-data-us-nsa-185616676.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/30/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSBRE99S03N20131030
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/29/politics/nsa-hearing/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/28/report-nsa-spain/3284609/
The NSA's activities will not start a war. Its purpose is to stop wars by getting privy information prior to attacks and creating solutions prior to problems, all via 21st century technology. It's understandable that it may annoy people and it may result in some policy issues domestically and internationally. My question is, why do people act like the NSA is "invading privacy" for fun? There is no motive behind randomly collecting metadata. Does that sound fun? Tech spies don't have spare time where they sit around checking out data from teenagers' Facebook pages. The NSA has justifiable reasons for anyone they track, and not letting out those reasons is part of protecting the nation.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Sarah on this, why are we slamming our government for trying to protect us? I think you are going a bit far by making the statement "There may come a point where another country will not accept this and it could start a war." Do you truly think that another country would want to start a war with the U.S. for something such as data collection? Especially when it has done so in an effort to protect its citizens?
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that things we do may not appeal to other countries, but I find it hard to believe that it would cause such dire consequences as a war. Do you have any research to support this? I read through your sourced articles and cannot seem to locate anything there. The only possible threats mentioned was to suspend some trade agreements and ".......Europeans consider suspending the SWIFT agreement at the very least. The agreement allows access to funds transferred through the private, Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which handles the movement of money between banks worldwide." That is a far cry from war.
As I read your sources, I also noted that while other countries governments were upset, we are holding hearings and working with these countries to get it all sorted out and to try to find a balance. As noted in the articles, spying on other countries is standard practice. The biggest difference now is the abundance of opportunities because of the IT advancement. One article even downplayed it all and suggested that the "outrage" was more a public showing rather than a feeling of threat.
Also, you stated "There is a simple solution here and a fine line between invading privacy and protecting the national security of the United States." What is the simple solution? I have to disagree and say that there is not a simple solution, but instead it is a very complex situation to where there are no simple or 100% correct answers. I feel that you have contradicted yourself as well by your last two statements in which you said you do not want war, you do not want to be spied on, but you don't know if it's possible for this to be avoided without the security surveillance. That doesn't sound very simple to me.
In reading your article, I was not surprised to hear of the NSA actions. In response, I am not suspicious, nor offended by their actions. I feel that it is their duty to protect this nation, and us citizens do not know all of out potential threats.
DeleteI totally understand why this topic would be sensitive and controversial. As a foreigner, I felt being offended the first time i heard about this because behavior like this is considered to be unethical all over the world, especially for a country like the U.S. who is always talking about human rights and privacy. However, I believe almost every country is actually doing the spy thing. The States is the only one been caught doesnt mean it is the only one doing this. And i think it is understandable for the government to spy for national security.
ReplyDeleteIt is not surprising that NSA has gone to such lengths. But how do we know where the line is. It’s hard to take any actions if there are no visible boundaries. I don’t want to see a war either. However, I don’t think they’re necessarily harming anyone. I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.
ReplyDelete