No one is contending that the NSA shouldn't be able to eavesdrop. The contentions lie with the concern that the NSA is eavesdropping on Americans without the proper judicial oversight. The NSA is not supposed to conduct domestic surveillance as that should properly fall on the FBI.
The NSA already has the right under current law to
eavesdrop on domestic communications up to 72 hours without any warrant. After 72 hours of monitoring someone, the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) says the goverment must request from the FISA court an exstension, but only if it concerns a legitimate reason to do so.
America is about laws. It does not mean becuase you are the president you are allowed to make up the laws so they suit you. Egregious acts acted out by our goverment is not some far-flung conspiracy theory. There are precedents in American history that make such concerns warranted, most prominent being the abuses of past FBI director John Edgar Hoover and not least ex-president Richard Nixon.
I don't think most Americans want the NSA to stop doing their jobs, but we do want to feel secure that they are not targeting innocent Americans. It's a very fine line. It's a diffuclt job but if
Americans are going to have to give up every hard won right, then we cease to be Americans. In that case the terrorist would have already won. If America should cease to be an Athens to only become a Rome, how sad that will be.
The NSA already has the right under current law to
eavesdrop on domestic communications up to 72 hours without any warrant. After 72 hours of monitoring someone, the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) says the goverment must request from the FISA court an exstension, but only if it concerns a legitimate reason to do so.
America is about laws. It does not mean becuase you are the president you are allowed to make up the laws so they suit you. Egregious acts acted out by our goverment is not some far-flung conspiracy theory. There are precedents in American history that make such concerns warranted, most prominent being the abuses of past FBI director John Edgar Hoover and not least ex-president Richard Nixon.
I don't think most Americans want the NSA to stop doing their jobs, but we do want to feel secure that they are not targeting innocent Americans. It's a very fine line. It's a diffuclt job but if
Americans are going to have to give up every hard won right, then we cease to be Americans. In that case the terrorist would have already won. If America should cease to be an Athens to only become a Rome, how sad that will be.
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