By KATHERINE BAKAITIS
Staff Writer
Hello, everybody! I hope you’re all enjoying your summer break. Copies of George Orwell’s book 1984 (“Big Brother is watching you”) have been flying off the shelves lately, and not just because people want a nice summer read (though I do recommend reading it if you haven’t already). Americans have been taking a second look at Orwell’s masterpiece in light of recent events that almost mirror the main points of the book. I am, of course, talking about the NSA leaks.
One of the main questions that surround this leak is about the man who exposed it all; Edward Snowden. Is he an American hero, or a traitor? I suppose that depends on who you ask. Speaker of the House, John Boehner thinks that Snowden is a “traitor” because, “the disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk. It shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. And it’s a giant violation of the law.” I’m pretty certain that our enemies already know what we are capable of (as does the rest of the world!). On the other hand, Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who revealed secrets of the Vietnam War through the Pentagon Papers in 1971, said Snowden’s leak is even more important and perhaps the most significant leak in American history.
Despite the uproar, some of what Snowden revealed was actually legally obtained information by the government. Smith V. Maryland (1979) legalized tapping phone records (who was being called and for how long), which is what the government did. As long as it isn’t the content of the call, then it is legal because there is still an expectation of privacy to uphold. The only way the government can lawfully tap into the content of a phone call is through a warrant from probable cause or if the people are “foreign”. The rest of the leaked information, on the other hand, was taken from a program called PRISM, which contains illegally obtained information from search histories, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats. The program is run with the assistance of the companies they tap, such as Facebook and Google, but these companies have denied any knowledge of PRISM. The government claims that they only target non-U.S. citizens, since the U.S. Constitution doesn’t technically apply to them. I still find that somewhat difficult to believe because if you have the power, then why not?
People are acting like this is the government’s first Fourth Amendment offence. To the people who are now just getting upset over the government’s invasion of our civil liberties: where were you when the Patriot Act passed in 2001? Yes, it was just 6 weeks after the terrorist attacks and our government was in a fragile and defensive state, but come on. Isn’t this what the terrorists wanted; to make us all paranoid so our freedoms are taken away by our own government for our own “safety?” Well, it worked because the government is spying on its own citizens (and non-citizens) for our “protection”. If you’re going to become upset at Fourth Amendment violations, you should have showed it 12 years ago when the Patriot Act was set into place, which is a larger destruction of our civil liberties. The Patriot Act increases the government’s surveillance powers in four areas; it records searches which expand the government’s ability to look at records on an individual’s activity being held by third parties and it increases the government’s ability to search private property without notice to the owner. It expands a narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment that had been created for the collection of foreign intelligence information while also expanding another Fourth Amendment exception for spying that collects “addressing” information about the origin and destination of communications, as opposed to the content. Congress only passed this act because the Bush Administration bullied them into it, implying that members who voted against it would be blamed for any further attacks.
On top of all this, Edward Snowden has just released new information that will take the NSA leaks deeper into the international playing field. Apparently during the 2009 G20 Summit, foreign diplomats were under surveillance and their means of electronic communication were intercepted by their British hosts. Internet cafes were set up solely for the purpose of reeling in other diplomats so that they can be scrutinized under surveillance without their knowledge. When this was released recently, Turkey and Russia were furious about the G20 spying (understandably). If our own allies are spying on us and the rest of the world, then that means we’re definitely spying on them, too. Are there boundaries when it comes to putting our allies under surveillance, or are they considered our allies in name only? Well, I guess we can’t trust anybody nowadays. I can’t even imagine how this is going to affect our diplomatic relations with everybody. Snowden has certainly unleashed friction between our allies and enemies.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, so I don’t think our government is going to kill him and sweep the whole thing under a rug, but I do think that they will try to extradite him and put him on trial for treason. If it gets to the point where other people are getting punished or killed because of Snowden’s actions, then I hope he at least changes his attitude about not being sorry for what he did. Until then, he has nobody to look out for but himself. Only time will tell what will happen next and the domino effect that it might have. Edward Snowden is certainly a brave man for revealing his identity, but is he heroic? As I said, only time will tell.
