In Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” Bruce Wayne creates a cell phone-based sonar system he uses to pinpoint the Joker’s location within a building. The National Security Agency recently admitted to trying something eerily similar, minus the Morgan Freeman component, of course.
NSA Director General Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper went before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 2, and disclosed that from 2010 to 2011, the NSA had a pilot program that was used to determine if it could collect and track the bulk cell-site data of ordinary Americans.
In layman’s terms, the NSA was flexing its technological muscles to see if it could track millions of Americans by their cell phone locations.
While they say the data collected under the program was never put to operational use, Alexander went on the record saying, “This may be a future requirement for the country.”
The NSA also disclosed that if the program ever became operationally useful, the American public would not be informed, just certain federal officials within Congress on select committees.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the United States needs a strong intelligence gathering force to effectively respond to threats around the globe. But why the NSA ever need to be able to track our locations en masse?
If this kind of technology is not operationally viable now, amid a global war on terrorism, it will never be useful.
We were able to find former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in a hole outside Tikrit, Iraq, and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a compound inside Pakistan without tracking the location of millions inside each country. Bin Laden was found using limited electronic surveillance on a select few and a massive amount of human intelligence.
There is no excuse under the sun to justify this program. It is nothing more than a precursor to an Orwellian nightmare.
The NSA repeatedly uses the tried and true fall back of the Patriot Act to justify its actions. I guess the Constitution isn’t good enough for Alexander.
Under section 215 of the Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, Court can compel U.S. businesses to hand over tangible evidence in matters relating to national security, i.e., cell phone data.
The fact of the matter is, the FISA court was established in 1978, ostensibly to go after Soviet agents within the U.S. – not U.S. citizens themselves. Furthermore, the warrants issued have to be for specific persons of interest, not just blanket warrants.
Earlier this year it was revealed the NSA had ordered Verizon to send it a constant feed of cell phone metadata, where it compiled every subscriber’s list of calls made and received. The authorization it got from the FISA court was no more than a general blanket warrant, exceeding its authority and violating millions of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.
Now the NSA director is saying it may be necessary for national security to track every American on a routine basis.
I feel like I’ve woken up inside the Soviet Union under Stalin. It’s sheer insanity. This program would serve no purpose other than allowing the federal government to keep constant tabs on every American. How long will it be before the government sets up checkpoints and we’re asked for our papers?
This is the same government that slaughtered whole swathes of Native Americans, imprisoned Americans of Japanese descent during World War II, orchestrated massacres at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and is now arming the Department of Homeland Security with billions of rounds of ammunition and thousands of armored, mine-resistant vehicles.
And now it reserves the right to track us wherever we are, thanks to the modern convenience of cell phones.
The growing power of the federal government is far more of a threat to the constitutional liberty and livelihood of American citizens than al-Qaeda ever dreamed of being.
Ryan McGehee is a 20-year-old political science, history and international studies junior from Zachary.