I believe that tapping of our email and phone calls are necessary, but have gone way overboard. They most they should be able to do is have a search bar. They should just search words like; bomb, terrorist, and other terms having to do with acts of terrorism. They shouldn’t have the right to look in every single email in detail and “find” something else. Their searches need to be limited greatly. If they continue this it will become an even bigger problem, and with people talking about invasion of privacy and for just the people who don’t want the government snooping around their personal business. Listening to our calls shouldn’t happen unless the person is being suspected for something. Just peeking in on calls is wrong. They should have to have a reason or a warrant or anything that has legal permission instead of just being above the law. I think this needs to be stopped, and soon.
Do you think this is right? Or have they gone passed the line?
Is it possible to make this situation work? Or is it just not worth trying to stop them?
David
"We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home" - Edward R. Murrow
14 comments:
As I had mentioned before in class, President Bush seems like he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. He's shredded for not doing enough before Sept. 11th, and now he's ripped apart for doing too much.
Part of his job is to protect the country, and as the article we read mentioned, Congress gave him tacit approval to do what was necessary to keep the country safe. We haven't had any new attacks since 9/11/01. Maybe it's worked.
What else should he be doing instead?
I am one of the few people in our class who believes that Bush isn't doing anything wrong in THIS situation. The wiretaps enable the gov't to have better chance of finding terrorists. Some people are worried about a lack of privacy. But the gov't isn't going through reading every single email you send. They don't care about anything in our lives, unless its a threat to the country. Which is why I don't fully understand why the majority of the class is spazzing out about this...
To restate what Mr Wickersham said, there hasn't been any new attacks since 9/11. So maybe it is working.
jason
I agree with what jason said to an extent. I think it's good that the government is doing this because it's helping to prevent terrorist attacks, but i dont think they should tap everyone's lines. I think it should only be people who are suspicious. They dont have the right to spy on regular people and bust them for other things like selling drugs.
I agree with david that the governmnet should look for key words such as bomb, terrorist, and killings. But i do not think that the government should tap into all of our e-mail and cell phone conversations because it is not fair unless the have a warrent to do so. It is an invasion of our privacy, we should be able to talk to people on our phones and send e-mails with out the government taping into them. They have gone way passes the line by reading thousands of peoples e-mails, they shoould just search for key words or just tap into peoples e-mail.
Bob
I don't think that the government should be allowed to wiretap unless completely necessary. Like David said, they should stick to what they are looking for, and not stumble across something else. Continous reports should be given about the wiretapping progress, and if it is actually helping. Wiretapping is an invasion of privacy, and i think that the government should have some type of warrent to search your personal emails.
Natalie
I think that this is a huge problema and I agree with David when he says that the Government has gone overboard. I think that they should stop this because it is a huge invasion of my privacy. It makes me cry when I think of all the conversations that President Bush is probably secretely hacking on my name. I think that this should be fought although I doubt we would win because the Government has a pretty secure policy and I don't think a bunch of ordinary people would be able to win it.
AJ
I feel to some degree wire tapping could help America be safe. But when they go through personal emails and tap "potential" terrorists throughout the country thats a little much. And when they find something they weren't looking for but is still illegal, should they be able to arrest the person? I just feel that doing this is making Americans not trust there government as much as before.
Daniel
i think the government should be allowed to wiretape under certain circumstances. i think that it is totally getting into peoples business and it shold only be used for key words to narrow down the act of terrorism. they are going way over board with reading peoples emails. he should only be doing it when neseccary.
-emily
I agree that this wiretapping business is a little overboard. I think that it is a total invasion of privacy to just be able to read someone's emails. It's a crime for someone to hack into someone else's email, and yet the government does it nonstop without any particular method of search and without a warrant of some type. However, I have to say that I don't think that the keyword thing would work, as I don't think many terrorists would be stupid enough to write about "terrorism, bombs, terrorist missions" etc. in their emails when everyone knows that the government has the capability to tap emails. This is why I feel like the wiretapping isn't even effective in the first place; out of all the billions of emails they might check, what is the probability that they might find an email where a random terrorist just happened to mention a planned attack? I think these people would be discreet enough to make the attacks sound like something else in the emails so that they would be undetectable. Does anyone else agree?
-Ellie
I think the government has no business wire-tapping. It is our right as an American citizen to know that the government is not listening to our phone calls. It is an invasion of privacy and the government has gone way too far. Many people bring up that it has been stopping terrorists, but so far they have shown no signs of this wire-tapping being effective in preventing terrorists. A phone call is not going to stop anyone from bombing a building. If the government has tracked down a specific person and they have a warrant, THEN and only THEN can they begin wire-tapping.
I can see why the government is wiring tapping, but I don’t think that its the right way to protect or country. Even if they just search “bomb” or something they wont find any real terrorists because I am sure that they have some form of a code that wont make it that obvious that they are planning an attack. The government should only be aloud to wire tap if they have reason to believe that that person is a threat. That is the only time that government should be able to tap into our lives. They can keep an eye on the terrorists with out taking away our rights.
I agree with Jason because the government is doing all this to keep the American people safe. The only reason I would have a problem with this is if our government accuses innocent people because of where they have emmigrated from. Other then that I don't understand why everyones making this such a big issue. What do we have to worry about if we didn't do anything. And to the point of them invading our privacy, just don't email stuff or say stuff you don't want the Government to know about. The government doesn't want the U.S. to have another attack and risk thousands of American lives.
Neha
If you are worried about your privacy, you can go onto this website: DoNotWiretap.gov , and you can put yourself on a do not wiretap list so the government can't listen to your phone calls or read your e-mails.
But what i am confused about is if you can do this, then how would wiretapping even work. Let's just say you were a terrorist and you could put your name on this list so the government can't eavesdrop. How would this catch any terrorists if they were all on the list? Does this mean there is no list, or whats the point of wiretapping if there is a list?
Brit
I agree with David that the government has gone overboard with tapping into are emails and phone conversations. Its one thing if they were looking for a terrorist and found one, but if there looking for something and 'accidently' come across something else, than thats wrong. I think the government has gone passed the line but i also don't know if it is possiable to make this situation work. The government tends to do whatever it is that they want to do and it doesn't seem that anyhting will stop them. If they want to tap into our emails and phone conversations, and have the technology and access to it then I don't see anything stopping them.
~melissa
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