The attacks on America conducted by the foreign terrorist group, Al Qaeda, on September 11th 2001 changed the way that the American people feel about their nation's safety.  These attacks have forced legislatures to pass acts allowing federal agencies to monitor the American people using unprecedented methods. One of these methods is wiretapping; wiretapping is the practice of secretly monitoring a conversation using a device connected to a suspect’s cell phone in order to gain value information on suspected criminals. This allows federal agencies such as the National Security Agency or the Federal Bureau of Investigation to get the upper hand on suspected terrorists and help prevent attacks that would have taken place without the help of the wiretap. The NSA is legally allowed to warrantless wiretap, meaning they do not need any judge’s approval, rather they can go ahead with their investigation unimpeded. Some people will argue that this act helps NSA violate an everyday citizen’s privacy and that they should have their wiretapping program terminated immediately. This action should not worry the American People; this is because the NSA is worried about the safety of Americans rather than the small details of an everyday citizen's life. The American Government rightfully allows federal agencies to wiretap the phones of suspected terrorist and surveil their electronic activity in order to help prevent future terroristic attacks on American soil.

The attacks conducted on September 11th created a need for more surveillance, and less than two months later the government created the Patriot Act.  The Patriot Act was put into place to research any person suspected of terrorist activities. President George Bush signed this act in order to make America a safer place and also give the Americans a sense of much needed security.  One of the most important parts of the wiretap act is section 206, this section permits the wiretapping of a person without a warrant if they are a suspected terrorist (Christina).  This section also gives the government the power to follow a target for a purpose of surveillance, rather than surveil with an intent to charge a suspect with some crime.  But the government needs to have some reasonable belief that they person being followed is a foreign power or he is directly related to a foreign power in some other way.  This is an important part of the governments process to staying a step ahead of terrorists. 

 Crime fighting agencies are able to stay ahead through the surveillance and this is key to their process, they are able to follow them physically and knowing who they are communicating with while greatly assist the law enforcement (USA Patriot Act).  These programs are helping stop the terrorist attacks in America after September 11th.  There have been 60 attempted terrorist attacks since this date and combined they have not done the damage that the attacks by Al Qaeda's attack did, and this in part due to the Patriot Act. The criminal world is advancing quickly with technology and that means that the agencies must advance with it, if the criminals are able to have better technology they will come out on top the majority of the time. General Keith Alexander agrees that wiretapping has become a necessity to limiting the terrorist’s attacks. The general is the director of the NSA was testifying in front of the house and defended the Patriot Act.  He revealed that more than 50 incidents of terrorism in America or abroad have been shut down by the NSA due to their legal right to wiretap (Bucci).  While government agencies cannot stop every threat posed, the Patriot Act allows them to stop them to the best of their ability.  

While the legality of the Patriot Act is questioned because of the government monitoring, this monitoring is important to keep because national security is paramount to all other issues for the American people.  The first goal of a properly governed country is to ensure the safety of its members through whatever means necessary. If the government has a suspicion that a person is creating a plot to kill innocent civilians, they need to be able to stop them using legal options, and wiretaps need to be one of those options. Americans live with three idealistic rights, those rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  These three things are automatically granted to all American citizens at birth, but there need to be ways for the government to keep all these options running.  The problem proves to be that there are necessary tradeoffs that the government decides to make for a better America. The American people must be ready to give up a small liberty in order to keep their first granted right.  These smaller liberties could be something like having their phone monitored by the National Security Agency. But this is a tradeoff the American people should accept because they need to value their lives more than the conversations they are having over the phone. While many people feel that this wiretapping is doing more harm than good, ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft believes that the government counters terrorism better than ever before. Ashcroft is speaking about wiretapping shortly after the attacks conducted by Al Qaeda, which shows he is more likely to be hard on terrorism because of its destructive nature (EBSCO Host).  Government monitoring is essential because the national safety of the American people is of utmost importance when considering the legality of new tactic.

Electronic surveillance is the safest and most efficient way to monitor and shut down the operation of a terrorist.  Electronic surveillance is a secretive method of monitoring suspects; this keeps agents in a safe location monitoring the suspect rather than tailing behind them with the risk of getting caught.  If an officer is following behind a suspect about to commit a terroristic act, he puts his own life in danger because the terrorist will have no problem killing him in order to save his whole operation.  When a terrorist finds a piece of technology that is monitoring them, they will simply break the technology rather than attempting to kill an agent. Another key point to electronic surveillance is that it never has to stop.  An agent will eventually have to go home and rest and has no idea what the suspect is up to.  But with the electronic monitoring he would be able to sleep, then listen to any calls or conversations he has recently had.  The electronic evidence gives a noncontroversial witness when testifying in court. With electronic proof of what the defendant says, there is no way that any lawyer could argue against the tape, but with a human they could argue that they misheard or that they are misrepresenting the evidence.  Electronic surveillance also gives power to the President when considering a war on terror, shortly after 9-11 George Bush allowed the NSA to use these methods to attempt to find out who committed these horrific acts (Yoo). The electronic surveillance conducted by the government is a great way of capturing criminals.

Inaccurate intelligence is a problem that America would have to deal with in order to deal with American attacks.  Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan and it was a surprise to all.  Within ten years of these attacks, the American government established the CIA and NSA to help ensure safety to its country and to prevent America from being sneak attacked ever again. Both of these agencies are tasked with gathering information on the home front and on foreign soil in order to keep America a safe place. These agencies are asked to complete a hard task and must be granted the best resources in order to do this. If the agencies do not get what is necessary to monitor terrorists, they will be gathering a small amount of information. With little information the agencies will struggle to do so and will have to guess as to what the terrorists are planning to do which could force these agencies to have information that is inaccurate.  In order to not undermine what the agencies work so hard for they need accurate intelligence that is provided by wiretapping. 

Telephones calls are not being recorded or searched if the government does not feel that they have a reason to do this. President Bush said "We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans. My efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates” President Bush makes it clear that the government has no intention of scrolling through the phone calls of everyday people. This statement is in response to a report that the NSA wasn't looking for terrorists but rather mining through people's personal lives to gather information on the daily level.  Bush also states that the National Security Agency is going through phone records but is not collecting names, but they are looking at patterns in an attempt to track terrorists (Washington Times). The National Security Agency at one point was collecting bulk call data and collecting intel, but it has been ruled illegal and the agency has stopped since (Savage and Weisman).  Their program was made so gain more intelligence, for the right reasons and did not have ill intentions.  This part of the program should be reinstated because they are not looking at individuals but they are looking at trends to strengthen national security. The government agencies who are searching telephone calls are rightfully doing so due to their suspicion of terrorism and their intentions when collecting bulk data.

The United States is at risk of being attacked by the newest kind of terror, cyber terror. The government now holds all records electronically and will continue to put themselves at risk without the proper technology. Criminals are aware of the laws and the way that the government agencies use them, once they find out America has let up on the electronic monitoring they will cease the opportunity.  This is a risk that the American people should not be willing to take because it will put the nation’s security at risk with the information that the government holds. The NSA claims that in cyberspace, "cyber threats to U.S. national and economic security increase each year in frequency" (Understanding the Threat).  The agency knows that the number of cybercriminals are growing and with it should grow the technology used to keep away.  The NSA also mentions the economic state of America and how it could be compromised by a single hacker. They need to keep the economy running smoothly, even if it means that some people feel that have privacy evaded.  The NSA also uses the internet to monitor social media and look for anyone who seems that they are in contact with foreign terrorist groups (Understanding the Threat).  The internet is an asset that almost everyone relies on and trusts personal information their personal information with. For criminals to get access to this with no agency overseeing their actions could turn out be very detrimental to society. Another reason we need this to prevent cyber terror is that even criminals are using the internet.  When the criminals use the internet, the government should be able to look at what they are doing which will give them a leg up in figuring out any future plots.  The cyber threat is a grave threat to the American society and economy that needs to be prevented through electronic surveillance.

Many argue that allowing the NSA and other federal agencies to wiretap phones and electronically surveil American citizens without a warrant is unconstitutional and that this is a gateway to more power. The wiretap program that has been running for years is only monitoring those who are suspected of committing a crime. The opposition argue that the program violates the 4th amendment that prohibits any illegal search and seizure.  Many times searches similar to these are illegal but not when there is probable cause that the suspected is doing something wrong. It is not illegal wiretap suspects phones because of the probable cause that the government gathers in order to conduct this search. It is similar to a police officer following a suspect physically after he commits a crime and searches him, that is why there in no law broken. With the probable cause needed, it makes the electronic monitoring program very similar to the physical monitoring process. The opposition also argues that this program gives the government too much power and creates a slippery slope for the privacy rights of American citizens. This is not true because of the way that the agencies are conducting their research and because of the checks and balances in the American Government.  The three branches are closely monitoring this program because of all the negative attention it has got. They will make sure that it is running smoothly and is operating legally. While monitoring, they will not hesitate to shut down the program if they suspect activity that has crossed the line and invaded personal privacy.  The arguments that wiretapping and electronic monitoring is unconstitutional and that is gives the government too much power is inaccurate due to the NSA's way of conducting these methods.

Allowing the government to wiretap and electronically surveil is a legal matter that the government has the right stance on, and should not change. The Patriot Act was enacted shortly after 9/11 and it was the first act that was installed that uses these kinds of programs. These programs allow the American federal agencies to stay a step ahead of the terrorists.  Due to the recent terrorist attacks America has realized that national security is paramount and that some privacies are worth giving up because of national’s security importance. These methods are also safer and more efficient than physically following suspects. The government is not using these programs for their own gain, rather they are only using it in cases where they feel the countries security is at risk.  With cyber terror being the newest kind of terrorist attack, America has to keep up with the electronic world in order to secure our safety. These views all stem from Al Qaeda's hateful attack on American soil and America’s need to stay safe.
