Bolstered Surveillance Concerns Congress
The NSA (National Security Administration) has been in the headlines lately for its excessive snooping. Critics on Congress say that it’s previously assumed amount of surveillance was eclipsed by what actually goes on. The agency lately has sparked some controversy about its practice of monitoring domestic e-mails.
Since April, the agency has been scrutinized by the public and Congress for its privacy invading tactics, particularly concerning the aforementioned e-mail spying. This has turned out to be true, as a former N.S.A. analyst testifies that he was trained in the art, and current employees disclose that the program is still in effect.
People all over are a bit edgy about the organization’s practices. The NSA agreed that they had collected too many e-mails, but it was on accident. Privacy activists insist this is a lie, and that no one cracks down on this organization because they don’t understand how it all works.
The analyst and current employees disclose some information about the operation. It is hard to tell if someone is overseas, and therefore, can be scanned and spied on, so Congress granted the NSA a little more leeway on surveillance; if there is any suspicion, go for it.
Some lawmakers are beginning to question the organization, and to the extent they are allowed to snoop. They are rethinking reasonable interception numbers, and most of all, deciding how many accidents (intercepting of people inside the U.S.) can be made before action is taken.
The shifting of Bush to Obama administration has seen no change in the concern Congress has about national security. While it seems best to let the NSA govern itself, the people will have none of that. The government must decide reasonable limits to allow the NSA to continue protecting national security, but also not enrage the public by violating security rights; a fine line to walk.
A spokesperson of the NSA, Wendy Morigi, said that due to the sensitive nature and complexity of the program they operate, mistakes can occur. When this happens, they are corrected, reported, and hopefully avoided the next time.
The Obama administration and the Justice Department have both assured the public that they have taken probable action to assist the NSA so that this over collection doesn’t happen again. They say, that in order for the NSA to be allowed to access any data that it must first receive permission, but critics say this permission is given out too indiscriminately. Supporters say that they would rather have a couple of e-mails read than a terrorist attack.
The NSA has a primary prerogative when monitoring e-mails: ones coming into U.S., and ones coming out. Sometimes there can be confusion though. Since there are so many computer networks in the U.S., sometimes it can be unclear which e-mail was coming from which network. This can cause some problems for the NSA, and before this investigation occurred, an anonymous official said they would just search it if they had any concerns, just to be safe.
The difficulty in determining where e-mail messages originated from is what caused the Bush administration to allow the NSA a more flexible error room by allowing them to search more indiscriminately. Although that law seems helpful, it pretty much acknowledged that some Americans will be wrongly searched in the name of democracy.
Obviously this doesn’t pacify the public, and this law never stated that the agency could just monitor with no evidence of anything suspicious happening. According to the NSA though, something has got to give: be it your privacy, or national security.
