As a nation, we pride ourselves in the civil liberties that we have and the fact that we cannot, and should not be taken advantage of by the government. A police officer cannot just walk into my house and say, “Yeah, I want to see if you have anything illegal” without some sort of a reason. There are a series of rights that we have that protect us from the government. But, those rights seem to be slowly disappearing…
On October 26, 2001, a little over a month after September 11, the Patriot Act was passed in Congress. This bill was one that was argued to be incredibly necessary to take the fight to the terrorists and get the necessary information. Anyone that was believed to have connections with terrorists could have their phones tapped and e-mails read. However, it was argued that only those that had some sort of a connection or believed connection to terrorists would be snooped on.
Apparently, that’s not true…
According to an article I came across thanks to our good old Trevor Jones, the U.S. listened in on intimate conversations between Americans overseas and their loved ones back home. These allegations came by two former military intercept operatives. As one former Arab linguist said that they would listen to “personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism.”
Since when does a soldier in Iraq saying “Goodnight and I love you” to his wife merit for snooping? Is this some secret terrorist conversation that really means “we are going to attack…?” The best part is that when these linguists would complain to their supervisors that they felt snooping on personal conversations was wrong, they were told to continue doing it.
Since when do our brave soldiers, of ALL people, deserve to be snooped on?
These are soldiers that are going overseas to fight a war that is becoming more and more unpopular. The response of our administration to American soldiers dying is to spy on the soldiers fighting it. These are men and women that are dying to fight a war and their thank you is to be spied on when they are having an intimate conversation with their loved one. How is asking how the kids are terrorism? How is telling someone you miss them terrorism?
This is ridiculous. I can sometimes understand the need for the USA Patriot Act. I can sometimes understand the need for our intelligence agencies to really know what exactly is going on – I really can. But, this is just too much. Spying on people that have absolutely no connection to terrorism is just another example of why the Patriot Act is so easily abused.
Because of this, Congress needs to determine a line that shouldn’t be crossed. In particular, one of the primary concerns I have is spying on our soldiers without any reason. If our soldiers are going to be spied on, there should be a reason for it. I understand the need to spy, without reason, on people that might be terrorists; however, our soldiers are not terrorists and because of that, there should be a reason for being spied on.
The United States has obviously abused their power here and those that were involved should be punished. The NSA supervisors who made it clear that the linguists should continue eavesdropping even though the conversations were personal should be fired. They should not have be let off the hook for this disappointing abuse of freedom.
The Patriot Act might be a necessary evil, but if it is going to be abused like this, some serious limits must be put on it. Saying “Goodnight or I love you” is not terrorist talk. It does not merit being spied on, not at all.
About Jacob Cohen Donnelly
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