OMNI
BILL OF RIGHTS DAY DECEMBER 15, 2015
NEWSLETTER #7
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of
Peace and Justice.
(#1 Dec. 15, 2008; #2 Dec. 15, 2009; #3 Dec.
15, 2011; #4 Dec. 15, 2012; #5 Dec. 15, 2013; #6 Dec. 15, 2014)
OMNI
BILL OF RIGHTS DAY DECEMBER 15, 2014 NEWSLETTER #6
What’s at
stake (See Newsletter #6): Attacks on the US Bill of
Rights and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights threaten OMNI’s hopes
for a better world: world peace, liberty
and justice for all, social and economic justice, a sustainable planet.
OMNI
UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
NEWSLETTER #7, THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR) AT 67. DECEMBER
10, 2015.
OMNI
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
(Compilation
for the Project, which began in 2008, ends Dec. 2015, but the archive is
available for research.)
Contents of #6 at end
Contents of Bill of Rights DAY Newsletter #7, December 15, 2015
BORDC Celebrates the Bill
of rights 12-15-15
Center for Constitutional
Rights
Bill of Rights Institute
ACLU on the Patriot Act
Janine Parry on Equality
National Days Transformed
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Center for Constitutional Rights https://ccrjustice.org/donate
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When you stand with CCR, you stand for the human and civil rights of ALL people and against the powers that be and the status quo. We hope you’ll make that choice today by joining with a monthly gift of $10 to support the fight for justice!
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· We ENDED indeterminate solitary
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on their faith community;
· We
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BILL OF
RIGHTS INSTITUTE
/ Educate / Educator Resources / Free Lesson Plans / Current Events eLessons / Snowden and the
NSA
SNOWDEN AND THE
NSA
A
mere nine months ago no one knew the name Edward Snowden. Now not a week goes
by without a news story related to his revelations about the National Security
Agency (NSA). No doubt your class has already begun to ponder the implications
of NSA information gathering and what it says about our system of governance. Does
the executive branch, which controls the NSA through the Department of Defense,
have too much power? How do we resolve the tension between liberty and
security? Is Snowden, who released classified information, a traitor or a
whistleblower? Were his actions morally justified?
While
the Snowden affair is too large to cover in its entirety (please look at some
of the resources below for a great roundup), from a constitutional standpoint
one of the most relevant aspects of the debate over his actions is the tension
between the executive’s war powers and civil liberties.
There
are numerous restrictions on the president using the power of the military on
American civilians. The Third Amendment, for example, forbids the peacetime
quartering of soldiers in domestic homes, and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878
forbids the federal government from employing military personnel to enforce
U.S. domestic law.
Similarly,
U.S. law prohibits intelligence agencies from targeting American citizens. The
National Security Act of 1947, which established the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), explicitly prohibited the agency from having “police, subpoena,
law-enforcement powers, or internal security functions.” The intelligence
agency reforms that emerged post-Watergate required special court
authorizations for surveillance of U.S. citizens. The boundary between
justified and unjustified intelligence gathering has long been the difference
between foreign and domestic.
However,
the difference between foreign and domestic surveillance is no longer so clear.
The majority of the communication infrastructure of the world is now located in
the United States – giving, as one NSA document called it, a significant “home
field advantage” to U.S. intelligence agencies. This may mean that elements of
intelligence gathering can be used against domestic targets.
We’ve
already seen this play out with Project SHAMROCK, an initiative undertaken by
the NSA in 1945 to analyze incoming and outgoing telegrams. By the mid-1970s
the NSA was analyzing 150,000 messages a month. When the project became public
the arguments were similar to the ones we see today. Defenders of the program
pointed to the need for accurate intelligence and the potential for foreign
agents to use the civilian infrastructure. Critics called it a massive
overreach of executive power. The program, under fire from Congress, was
cancelled in the late 1970s.
Many
of the NSA programs detailed in Edward Snowden’s documents are similar to
SHAMROCK in that they analyze traffic from U.S. communication hubs to try and
detect malicious actors. Is this a violation of the Constitution? Does a
government with the power to know more about a person’s telephone calls and
internet usage than a spouse or a parent have the ability to blackmail citizens
and squash political dissent? Or are these programs a legitimate way for
intelligence agencies to do a difficult job? It can be argued both ways. The
current debate highlights the importance of civil discourse in order to
determine the proper balance of liberty and security in the United States.
Resources
Obama’s Restrictions on NSA Surveillance Rely on Narrow
Definition of Spying, The Washington Post
Discussion Questions
1. How should Congress exercise its oversight of
intelligence agencies?
2. Do foreign citizens have an expectation of privacy? In
the U.S.? In their own countries? If so, should this change U.S. government
intelligence operations?
3. General warrants, or ‘writs of assistance’, were warrants
issued by King George III to authorize general searches of colonists. Agents of
the King could search a suspect or a suspect’s home and documents at will.
These types of investigations were one of the major complaints of the Founding
Fathers. What are the parallels with bulk collection of data? What are the
differences?
4. There have been reports that the NSA weakened U.S.
Internet companies’ security (i.e. made the computer security easier to break)
to facilitate data gathering. What constitutional issues might this raise?
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Arlington, VA 22203
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©
2015 BILL
OF RIGHTS INSTITUTE
ACLU AND
PATRIOT ACT
(see earlier BOR newsletters on the ACLU)
www.aclu.org/infographic/surveillance-under-patriot-act
Hastily passed 45 days after 9/11 in the name of national
security, the Patriot Act was the first of many changes to
surveillance laws that made it easier for the ....
www.aclu.org/aclu-fact-sheet-patriot-act-ii
Less than two years after Congress passed the USA PATRIOT
Act, giving new, sweeping powers to the federal government to conduct
investigations and ...
usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/patriotabuse.htm
In two legal challenges to controversial provisions of the Patriot Actbrought
by the ACLU and other groups, the government has filed secret
evidence that it is refusing ... More »
JANINE PARRY ON EQUALITY
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Professor
Janine Parry will speak on "Sex and the American Constitution: Equality
for Whom, When and Why?" at 4 p.m.Thursday, Sept. 17,
in Room 132 of the Chemistry Building.
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OMNI
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
(December 2015 ends the annual,
ongoing compilation (since 2008) of Days newsletters, but they reside
permanently in OMNI’s archive available for research.)
Newsletters: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/ The length of these newsletters counters the
sciolism of twittertweet communication to establish OMNI and the peace movement
in substantial knowledge with peace, justice, and ecology perspectives.
For research
purposes, specific subjects can be located in the following alphabetized index,
and searched on the blog using the search box. The search box is located
in the upper left corner of the webpage.
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
See: Constitution Day Newsletters, Human Rights
Day December 10 Newsletters, and newsletters on Civil Liberties, Detainees,
FBI, Homeland Security, National Security State, NSA, Security, Surveillance,
Torture, War on Terror, and others.
(479)
442-4600
2582 Jimmie Ave.
Fayetteville, AR 72703
2582 Jimmie Ave.
Fayetteville, AR 72703
Contents: Newsletter #1 Bill of Rights
Day Dec. 15, 2008
Celebrate
December 15
Free Materials
Patriot Act vs.
Civil Liberties
Bill of Rights
Day 2008 and ACLU
Related
Protections of Liberty
Habeas Corpus
Posse Comitatus
vs. Militarism
Contents Newsletter #6 Bill of Rights DAY December 15, 2014
Bill of Rights DAY 2014
ACLU Recent Supreme Court
Cases
ACLU State Affiliates
Celebrate Bill of Rights
Center for Constitutional
Rights CCR
Peter Van Buren, Shredding
the Fourth Amendment: NSA, Bush, Obama,
Snowden
Snowden
Thomas Frank, Rev. of
Zephyr Teachout’s Corruption in America: Integrity
of
Elections vs. Freedom of Expression for Corporations and Wealthy Individuals
Elections vs. Freedom of Expression for Corporations and Wealthy Individuals
FDR’s “Economic Bill of
Rights”
First Retail Workers’ Bill
of Rights
END BILL OF
RIGHTS DAY NEWSLETTER #7, DECEMBER 15, 2015
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