If the reports about the NSA's programs aren't being exaggerated, then our National Security
Agency is the closest thing to Big Brother the world has ever seen. Even if the reports
are being overstated by just half, the NSA's surveillance measures are still well beyond
what we thought possible even 15 years ago. So, what happened? How did the NSA get so
powerful?
The NSA stems from agencies that we created in order to collect information about foreign
nations during World War I and World War II. They collected communications intelligence:
initially radio signals, and then as technology advanced, electronic intelligence. Then, in
the Cold War, those two types of intelligence were combined into one new term: SIGINT, or
signal intelligence.
That is what the NSA works on collecting today: SIGINT. And it's an extremely broad term.
also includes types of communications that didn't even exist when that term was invented.
It basically covers any form of communication collected in any way. If you sent it out and
they can get it, it's considered SIGINT.
So, right off the bat ,the edges of what information the NSA can and cannot look at, aren't even
definable. It could be anything.
Also, not defined...is what the NSA has done and is currently doing.
The NSA was formed by President Harry Truman in one paragraph at the bottom of a classified
7-page memorandum. Initially, even the name of the agency itself was classified. According
to the memorandum, the NSA was established to:
"provide an effective, unified organization and control of the communications intelligence
activities of the United States conducted against foreign governments." -- Harry S.
Truman
In other words, it exists to spy on foreign governments. The first time the public became
aware of the NSA was during a Senate Investigation in 1975, and even then they admitted to spying
on American citizens. So, the foreign government thing, may have never been taken all that
seriously.
This first incident was during the Vietnam War, when the NSA was investigating members
of the Anti-War movement, people like Martin Luther King Jr, to see if they had any connections
to foreign criminals abroad. The NSA head admitted that they were spying on US citizens,
but he also noted that the spying was working. It made our country more secure.
Congress was alarmed by the NSA's disregard for civil rights. But they couldn't deny how
effective it was.
Still, something had to be done. So in 1975, congress wrote and passed the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, or FISA. FISA established a secret court that could issue the NSA warrants
for wiretaps and, when necessary, allow surveillance to begin before the warrant had been issued.
It sounds like a court that could keep the NSA in line, but according to some critics,
it was basically Congress's way of saying, "keep up the good work guys, if you need anything
just let us know that you already got it."
And all of this was before the Terrorist attacks on 9/11. After 9/11, the Bush Administration
asked the NSA to take a bigger role in counter-terrorism, so the NSA started pushing their surveillance
and information-gathering even further.
First, they started tracking calls to and from any nation with suspected terrorists,
including calls to and from the US, and then they moved on to emails and internet meta
data. From there, they started working with phone and tech companies to get direct access
to their servers for limited surveillance and searches, but shortly after, they pretty
much gave up the formalities, and started taking all the data they could from these
companies. Now, they're monitoring 193 other nations worldwide, as well as millions of
US citizens, all in the name of keeping us safe.
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