Posted on 06/12/2013 8:24:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The recent news that the NSA is collecting information on Americans from nine internet sources has brought to the forefront a confrontation between traditional sources of information and the legal framework of the government's right to investigate individuals.
This topic has several main issues. At the top of the list is President Obama's outrageous statement that Americans may need to give up some freedom for security from terrorism. The president has no right to decide what degree of freedom Americans can have. The freedom Americans have is defined not by any one elected official but by the Constitution.
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution has very precise language that directly applies to the NSA's seizure of personal information. The Fourth Amendment states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the places to be searched,, and the persons or things to be seized." The NSA's wide, unwarranted search of servers belonging to nine internet organizations is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. The main issue is the lack of specificity and lack of warrants for specific "persons or things to be seized."
That the president thinks it is acceptable to carry out these searches is particularly problematic, since his terrorism justification is challenged by the fact that the U.S. was warned by Russian intelligence in March 2011 that two Chechnyans were potentially planning terrorist acts against Americans but Obama's intelligence agencies refused to act on this very specific information.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The status?
ILLEGAL !
GEORGE MASON, ON WHICH THOMAS JEFFERSON RELIED ON TO WRITE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE:
“That general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive and ought not to be granted.”
What a lame excuse! They’ll try to justify this criminal data-mining operation of theirs while bending over backwards to not offend any Muslims!
Legal or not, the government will do what the government wants to do and there's not a DAMNED thing we can do about it...legally.
Computer encryption people get it, learn to use it , USE IT!!!
Your government views you as the enemy think about that folks
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