debate pf
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PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE RESEARCH SERIES
VOL. 5
NOVEMBER 2013
NO. 2
RESOLVED: THE BENEFITS OF DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE BY THE NSA OUTWEIGH THE HARMS.
The choice of this topic was undoubtedly influenced by the international controversy surrounding the disclosures by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden. Snowden, a 29-year-old high school dropout, was a contract worker at Booz
Allen Hamilton – a company hired to provide security for the databases used by the federal government’s National
Security Agency (NSA). According to statements made by Snowden, he became alarmed at the abuses he observed in the way data was collected and maintained. He copied key portions of the database and took the files with him as he fled, first to China and ultimately to Russia. He then began a series of disclosures to journalist Glenn Greenwald at the
British newspaper, The Guardian. The Guardian, in cooperation with such U.S. newspapers as the New York Times and the Washington Post, has disclosed many details of NSA surveillance programs. One such disclosure concerns
XKeyScore:
A top secret US National Security Agency programme allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The
NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet. (The Guardian, Aug. 2, 2013, p. 1)
According to The Guardian, the NSA has easy access to the phone calls and emails of all Americans:
The National Security Agency has a secret back door into its vast databases under a legal authority enabling it to search for US citizens' email and phone calls without a warrant, according to a top secret document passed to the Guardian by Edward Snowden. The previously undisclosed rule change allows NSA operatives to hunt for
PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE RESEARCH SERIES
VOL. 5
NOVEMBER 2013
NO. 2
RESOLVED: THE BENEFITS OF DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE BY THE NSA OUTWEIGH THE HARMS.
The choice of this topic was undoubtedly influenced by the international controversy surrounding the disclosures by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden. Snowden, a 29-year-old high school dropout, was a contract worker at Booz
Allen Hamilton – a company hired to provide security for the databases used by the federal government’s National
Security Agency (NSA). According to statements made by Snowden, he became alarmed at the abuses he observed in the way data was collected and maintained. He copied key portions of the database and took the files with him as he fled, first to China and ultimately to Russia. He then began a series of disclosures to journalist Glenn Greenwald at the
British newspaper, The Guardian. The Guardian, in cooperation with such U.S. newspapers as the New York Times and the Washington Post, has disclosed many details of NSA surveillance programs. One such disclosure concerns
XKeyScore:
A top secret US National Security Agency programme allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The
NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet. (The Guardian, Aug. 2, 2013, p. 1)
According to The Guardian, the NSA has easy access to the phone calls and emails of all Americans:
The National Security Agency has a secret back door into its vast databases under a legal authority enabling it to search for US citizens' email and phone calls without a warrant, according to a top secret document passed to the Guardian by Edward Snowden. The previously undisclosed rule change allows NSA operatives to hunt for