Kurt Barlow

Professor Skoy
English 2010
18 November 2015

Kurt Barlow
Honorable Queen Skoy
English 2010
18 November 2015

NSA: Good or Bad?

September 11, 2001, is a date all Americans recognize as the day the World
Trade Center buildings fell due to terrorism. Besides that terrible tragedy, another
unforgettable incident took place that day. The Patriot Act was passed, which allowed
for the creation of the National Security Agency, better known as the NSA. The NSA is
an intelligence organization of the United States government, responsible for global
monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence
and counterintelligence purposes a discipline known as signals intelligence. (National
Security Agency) Over the past decade, the NSA has become one of the most debated
topics of whether it is right or wrong. The NSA has been debated as being a violation of
our right to privacy. Those who are in favor of the NSA argue that the NSA is serving a
good purpose. It is making sure that no acts of terrorism will be able to happen again.
The NSA has its pros and cons, but I believe it has more cons then pros.
The NSA, in my personal opinion, is a pointless organization that spends 20
million dollars each year. (NSA scandal) The NSA will not release any information about
whether they have had any success in stopping terrorism or not. However, due to police
records, there is shown know unknown records for arrest under the cause of terrorism
except those caught doing the act of terrorism. ( They were caught in action) The NSA is
in complete violation with the fourth amendment and other rights to privacy. Overall, the
NSA should not be allowed to continue, when we allow this organization to continue,

we, as a country, are allowing our amendments and bill of rights to be over ruled.
Everything our forefathers fought for, will crumble and fall to pieces.
According to the Times, Bush signed a presidential order in 2002 allowing the
National Security Agency to monitor without a warrant the international (and sometimes
domestic) telephone calls and e-mail messages of hundreds or thousands of citizens
and legal residents inside the United States. (Times) The program eventually came to
include some purely internal controls - but no requirement that warrants be obtained
from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as the 4th Amendment to the
Constitution and the foreign intelligence surveillance laws require. (Spying on
Americans is Illegal) President Bush just signed a document saying security is better
than privacy and civil rights.
The NSA clearly and most certainly violates the 4th amendment which says, the
right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue,
but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.( Fourth Amendment)
How exactly does the NSA spy on people, how does it all work? Well, the NSA is
most widely known for using cell phone satellites to collect data. Whenever you send a
text, that text goes to a satellite where the context of the text will be sent to the recipient
and a data collector center. In Bluffdale, Utah, there is a fairly new NSA building, Utah
Data Center, which is meant for storage of text, calls, emails and any other messages
sent from a messaging device. Though the NSA has access to all of the text, emails ,
etc. they actually do not look through them all individually.(nsa.org) The only text or calls

that are monitored, are the ones that show up as being suspicious. The way the NSA
decides whether something is suspicious or not, is based off of select words that could
be used to reference something else. For example, when someone text, Bring me
some lettuce, they can be meaning two things, one, they really want some lettuce, or
two, they want you to bring them some money. Lettuce is a slang term for money.
Because of the vast amount of slang terms, the NSA has developed a program that
targets current, in use, slang terms. The NSA will only look at texts that either have
slang terms or those that can be questionable.(NSA spying) However, even though the
NSA limits the text they look at, they are still creating the act of violating our rights.
The NSA is monitoring thousands of electronics devices each and every day, but
just how helpful has the NSA been? According to the Guardian, the NSA began
incorporating companies into the agency by 2007. The first large company to give the
NSA their code was Microsoft. After that, several other large companies, such as
Facebook, Android, Yahoo and Google begin to give in. Finally in 2012, the NSA was
able to get Apple to give up their code in order for the NSA to monitor the phones. As of
now, the NSA has signed every electronic device available except for Burner phones.
These are pay phones and prepaid phones, phones that are good only for a short while.
The NSA has been successful in getting the communication availabilities in America.
When said, the companies gave their code, that is an understatement. The companies
were threatened and forced into giving up their code. The only reason Apple gave up
their code was because they were threatened of getting tariffs raised on their incoming
cell phones. (NSA Targets Apple)

The NSA is a deceitful organization that has not brought about much success.
They say they are violating our rights to protect us. But is giving up your civil liberties
and privacy worth protection from an unlikely terrorist attack? (Mapping a Terrorist) I
say it is not, the NSA should not allowed to continue, Liberty is worth more than security.

Works Cited:
"NSA Spying on Americans Is Illegal." American Civil Liberties Union.
Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
New York Times, Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
"Fourth Amendment - U.S. Constitution - FindLaw." Findlaw. Web. 18 Nov.
2015.
"' Document.title '" Welcome to the National Security Agency. Web. 20
Nov. 2015.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
Ball, James. "NSA Collects Millions of Text Messages Daily in 'untargeted'
Global Sweep." Guardian. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
Arthur, Charles. "NSA Scandal: What Data Is Being Monitored and How
Does It Work?" NSA Scandal: What Data Is Being Monitored and How Does It
Work? Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

 Napolitano, Judge. "The NSA and You: Spying on Innocents | Fox