Opening statement:
Should the NSA have acted in secrecy the way they did with the information they were obtaining?

Yes!

* Your stance * The controversy over the NSA’s secrecy has been front page news for a while now. This has caused heated debate, mostly caused my misunderstanding and miseducation. The NSA working in secrecy was necessary to keep terrorists and other threats to our country in the dark about what we are doing to keep our citizens safe. It would be dangerous and negligent to make this public information. Many people believe that this is an infringement on our 4th Amendment, but I believe that is caused by a misunderstanding of the governments rights and what they’re doing to actually keep us safe. * · The other piece to this controversy is the concept of serveilance. It is not widely known that the surveillance of US electronic communications has been allowed in America since 2001 and the events of September 11th and is protected by setion 215 of the Patriot Act, .. This enrages many citizens, but what they do not realize is this is all meant to keep us safe. *
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* 4th Ammendment * The fourth amendment which guards unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. * It is in the constitution and was put into place to protect the American citizens from unlawful actions by the law. * Since this information has leaked about what the NSA has been doing with peoples phone calls and emails its has caused an uproar in the United States. But it has also caused many Americans to be misinformed. –Rep Mike Rogers of Michigan * FACTS: * NSA is not listening to your phone calls or monitoring your emails.Because if they did it would illegal and breaking the law. * The NSA has repeatedly said that it only collects metadata- phone numbers and duration of phone calls. Not the actual conversation taking place. * For NSA to listen in on any conversation it must first obtain order from the FISA (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court). * Which in the law states that: * Police- do not need a warrant to search incoming and outgoing calls. Only need a subpoena from the court. That shows the information they are after is relevant to their investigation. * FBI- can request a secret court order for phone records related to an international terrorism or spying investigation without showing probable cause. * A warrant is needed for access to some emails (see below), but not for the IP addresses of the computers used to log into your mail account or surf the Web. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, those records are kept for at least a year

* For the lawmakers that disagree with the program- two thirds of the congress were not in office when 9/11 happened.(cheney) * Therefore the government is not infringeing on the 4th amendment it is getting a court ordered subpoena or warrant from the FISA court. That allows for these searches to be done.

* * Surveillance * WE (AMERICA) made the decision based on 9/11 that we no longer had a law enforcement problem- we are at war. (cheney) * When your are at war it puts you in the category of using your military assets , your intelligence assets and so forth to protect the country against another attack. (dick Cheney) * Patriot Act: The patriot act was put into place in 2001 after the September 11 attacks to assure the safety of the US. It is the specific legal order that authorizes the federal government to surveill the electronic communications of ordinary Americans. *

* In order to protect American lives and liberties, it has to be two things: powerful in its capabilities and secretive in its methods. – Genreal Micheal V. Hayden principle of deputy director of national intelligence. * NSA- if Americans talk to someone outside the US they can hold onto your