Soliz 1

Oscar Soliz
Mrs. Tyree
English III, Per.1
28 February 2013
Spying on U.S. citizens
Do we really have privacy in the U.S. are our cell phones and e-mails really secure? The
answer is no. The National Security Agency (NSA) is spying on citizens of the United States.
Many people are very upset and feel that they have no more privacy in their own homes. While
too many people think it is wrong for the government to access our personal information they
must do this to prevent future terrorists attacks.
The National Security Agency is one of the world biggest protection and intelligence
organizations. It is here to try to protect the citizens not only of the United States but people all
around the world. The NSA is known to stop criminals and terrorists from carrying out evil plans
against other major countries. The technology the NSA has is so advanced that the general public
doesnt even know it exists. The NSA has two intelligence activities which picks up information.
One is called signals intelligence (SIGINT). SIGINT will get foreign communication from
terrorists and will help other countries get an upper hand in the fight against them. The other
intelligence activity is known as Information Assurance (IA). This was formed to protect the
citizens of the United States. These two intelligence groups protect people around the world. The
NSA also has many locations across the U.S. including Atlanta, Washington D.C., Denver and a
place close to home in San Antonio, Texas.
The United States is not the only country in history to be known to spy on its citizens.
The Romans were known to spy on their citizens. ("U.S. Needs to Get Spying under Control." ).
Soliz 2

Only in more recent years have citizens been angry about how the government spies on them. In
1918 during World War I there was rumored to be German spies in the United States. A group
known as the American Protective League (APL) decided to take action and set out to find these
German spies. Instead of finding the German spies all the APL did was accuse innocent civilians
of being Spies. Even if the people were not spies the APL would not believe them and would
throw them in prison. This is similar to the incident of the Salem witchcraft trials ("The NSA's
Witch Hunt | Hoover Institution.). In Salem people were accused of being witches. If the people
did not confess to being witches they were usually killed. If they did confess they would die as
well. Even though the APL did not reach the level of inhumanity like Salem did the concept is
very much the same.
In more recent years the NSA came about. President George Bush authorized the NSA
soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The NSA is going through citizens personal e-mail and cell
phone calls (More About Department Of Defense/NSA Spying). In time the people found out
about this disturbing news President Bush admitted to authorizing the NSA ("Federal Judge: NSA
Phone Surveillance Is Legal.). In 2013 Edward Snowden, a former CIA and NSA employee leaked
top secret information about the NSA. Some of the information he leaked was about a secret
program named PRISM. This program started in 2007. What this program does is that it will
collect information from other countries that use Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft.
Another thing Snowden leaked is what the NSA calls widest-reaching intelligence system.
What this does is it allows NSA employees without authorization to access information to search
through people e-mails and to enter online chat rooms and to go through people recently search
websites. The NSA also uses Googles cookies to locate targets for hacking. They also go
through billions of phone calls every day, invading the personal space of people throughout the
Soliz 3

United States. Soon after Edward Snowden leaked this information about the NSA The U.S.
charged him for treason. Snowden would flee to Hong Kong after he told the information to a
U.S. reporter. When the U.S would revoke Snowmens Passport he would then fly to Russia.
When Snowden gets to the airport in Russia he is unable to leave and would remain there for 39
days because he does not have travel documents from the U.S. government. He is now being
kept somewhere in Russia. If Edward Snowden would return to the U.S. odds are he would face
the death penalty for committing treason.
The citizens of the United States are not the only people the NSA will spy on. They also
spy on foreign countries as well. The Americans Lied to Us was the title of a local German
newspaper named the Suddeutsche Zeitung. This newspaper says that the U.S. was tapping the
mobile telephone of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Germans also say that the
White House would not stop doing this. The U.S. and German agencies have been trying to reach
an agreement but have failed because the United States have not reached the demands of
Germany ("Stalemate in US-Germany Talks over 'no Spy' Agreement - Report - RT News.).
President Obama spoke publically on this situation. The president defends the NSA and
says that they have stopped 54 potential terrorist attacks in the U.S. and in Europe, saving the
lives of many people. Other countries have been very upset that their friend the United States
have gone behind their back and spied on important government officials. Some foreign
countries have protested the United States. For example, the President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff
cancelled her planned trip to the U.S capitol Washington D.C., even when President Obama
appealed, in protest of U.S. spying("U.S. needs to get spying under control."). the U.S. also
would spy on the Mexican President Pena Nieto. The NSA would get information on Nieto by
using Dishfire Programs. The Indian Government was also a victim of the NSA surveillance
Soliz 4

program. The NSA would spy on the U.S. embassy in India. They wanted to find out what kind
of nuclear and space programs that India was thought to have. The NSA spied on Asian, African
and Latin American countries to get information about the World Trade Organization
negotiations.
Many people ask how the National Security Agency spies on us. They use major
communication companies to spy on us. A news report in 2005 states that with the help of AT&T
the NSA can now go through our phone data. This help the NSA collect information more easily
and quick. When the news of this broke out the people did not know if this was true or not. It
wasnt until a former AT&T employee named Mark Klein admitted to it. He said that AT&T
would take the recent phone and internet history make a copy of them and then would send it to
the NSA (History of NSA Spying Information Since 2005). The NSA also has the help of all
the other major telecommunication companies including Verizon and Sprint.(History of NSA
Spying Information Since 2005). The NSA would also use Skype to spy on people. In 2008 The
New York Times would publish an article that said Skype stared a secret program that allowed the
government to use and spy on people whenever they want. To a lot of people the news of this is
disturbing. We all are customers to one of these companies and to know that they will take our
personal information and hand it to the NSA is wrong.
The National Security Agency is capable of getting information that we think is secure in
our own homes. But how do they have this kind of power? The NSA has a lot of tools that let
them get what they want. A security expert in Germany said that the NSA can turn any ordinary
Iphone into an eavesdropping tool. The Iphone turn in to a kind of radar that can give
information from computers that are offline. This is scary to think that the NSA has this sort of
power. Another type of tool that the NSA can use to spy is what some people call portable
Soliz 5

continuous wave generator. This is a remote control device that bounces waves of energy off of
keyboards and can tell exactly what you are typing. It seems that the NSA is getting the
ungettable here.
Is the National Security spying illegal or do they have the right to do it? The Fourth
Amendment states that 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 person or things to be seized. The fourth amendment is saying that
indeed the NSA spying is illegal. But there are three laws that permit the NSA to spy on citizens.
The Title III and ECPA could go through the phones of criminals. The third law is called the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA. What FISA does is that it allows the government to
spy on foreign countries. These three laws could help keep us safe. The laws can possibly
prevent terrorist attacks. The NSA has stopped at least two terrorist attacks in the U.S. reports
about the NSA also say that they intercepted a phone call made by one of the terrorists that was a
part of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They say at the time of the phone call the terrorist was not
known to be a threat so they did not do anything about it. Most people in the U.S say that the
NSA surveillance program does not do anything to prevent terrorist attacks. They think all it
does is invade their personal space. I think they are wrong. I believe that if the NSA was fully
functional back when 9/11 happened that we could have prevented it. The information the NSA
collected was used to take out Al Queda groups in Iraq.
Although many people think NSA spying is wrong they need to think about the good
things it has done. The NSA has stopped over 50 terrorist attacks in the United States and in
Europe. I think that spying is wrong and that it violated the fourth amendment but I understand
Soliz 6

that it has saved many innocent human lives. The public should really consider what good the
National Security Agency and the U.S. government are trying to do and accept it. The NSA
should only spy on people they think is a threat to our country and community.
















Soliz 7

Works Cited
"American Civil Liberties Union." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
"American Civil Liberties Union." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
"Donate." Top Stories RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
"NSA Can Spy on Offline Computers Wirelessly, Says Security Expert." [Link]. N.p.,
2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
"NSA Data Have No Impact on Terrorism: Report." [Link]. Bloomberg, n.d. Web. 16 Jan.
2014.
"NSA Spying | Electronic Frontier Foundation." Electronic Frontier Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web.
15 Jan. 2014.
"Stalemate in US-Germany Talks over 'no Spy' Agreement - Report - RT News." Stalemate in US-
Germany Talks over 'no Spy' Agreement - Report - RT News. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
"The NSA's Witch Hunt | Hoover Institution." The NSA's Witch Hunt | Hoover Institution. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
.CBS. "Federal Judge: NSA Phone Surveillance Is Legal." [Link]. N.p., 2013. Web.
14 Jan. 2014.
Secret Lists, Public Concerns [Link] 2010
Bergen, Peter. "NSA and Your Phone Records: What Should Obama Do?" CNN. Cable News
Network, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
Soliz 8

"U.S. needs to get spying under control." CNN Wire 25 Oct. 2013. Academic OneFile.
Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Works Cited page must be in same font as the rest of your paper. And the citations
must be in alpha order. You need to work on formatting. You also did not make several
of the suggested changes. Revision is more than correcting a few grammatical errors.
Content: 36/40; Organization: 25/30; Grammar: 14/20; MLA: 3/10 Grade: 78