Edward Snowden’s leak of the NSA’s PRISM program, shed light on one of the government’s largest violations of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. Those who perpetuated, including President Barack Obama and NSA officials, need to be held accountable.
Since 9/11, there have been numerous draconian laws put into practice to protect our freedom — at least that is the official narrative. With these revelations of NSA spying, privacy is becoming a relic of another time.
Over the summer a NSA contractor named Edward Snowden leaked out the existence of a major NSA program called PRISM, which data mines massive amounts of data from the top eight Internet companies which include Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and Twitter. This is unprecedented and illegal because the Patriot Act only authorizes specific violations of privacy, not mass violations of everyone’s privacy.
The Fourth Amendment states, “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.”
For years, the Fourth Amendment also included a person’s mail and phone calls, which is why the wiretappings of the ‘60s and ‘70s were a major controversy.
The most important aspect of this story is that every American’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy is completely violated when you enter cyber space. In today’s world, we depend on the Internet for daily life. Most of us apply to LSU online and connect with schoolmates and friends through Facebook and Twitter. Many of us participate in online dating services. Some students, especially graduates, use LinkedIn to find jobs. Many of us also buy products using Amazon, eBay and Craigslist. When we make these purchases and use the Internet, our right to privacy should not be violated.
The greatest shock of this revelation is that there hasn’t been a major public outcry.
The last time a president violated the Fourth Amendment, Congress brought up impeachment and he resigned in disgrace. At that time, Congress acted accordingly in response to the gross violations of civil liberties.
Civil rights activists aren’t waiting for Congress to act, because at the moment, they are unable to pass budgets let alone hold the president and the NSA accountable.
On Oct. 27 the “Stop Watching US” rally attracted thousands of activists to Washington, D.C., to protest the NSA and march in solidarity for Edward Snowden. The group behind the protest claim to have already gotten 575,000 signatures for a petition to “hold responsible parties accountable for misleading lawmakers and the American people.” This protest is the first major grassroots backlash to the growing surveillance state. Many activists, celebrities and whistleblowers have thrown their weight behind defending Snowden and pushing for oversight of the surveillance system in order to protect everyone’s privacy.
The man behind the Pentagon Papers leak, Daniel Ellsberg stated “there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material … including the Pentagon Papers.”
It is time for the American people to organize and demand accountability for the PRISM program. The government will claim that it is trying to protect our liberties, but in reality the president and the NSA are the ones that threaten them. We all need to wake up and hold them accountable, even the president of the United States.
If Bill Clinton was almost impeached in 1999 because he lied about an affair, then Obama and the heads of the intelligence community should all be in jail.
Joshua Hajiakbarifini is a 24-year-old political science and economics senior from Baton Rouge.