A Greater Threat to Democracy

While several of the readings on the drone and targeted killing programs discussed their damaging effects on democracy in the U.S., the bigger threat to democracy in the U.S. comes from the surveillance programs conducted by the NSA.   Greenwald describes the mammoth size and scope of these programs and their collection of massive amounts of data on both foreigners and U.S. citizens.  One of the most disturbing aspects of the programs is how they seem to mutate and expand in size and scope as time goes on.  In fact these are the objectives of the programs as Greenwald points out, the administrators set goals to keep on increasing the amount of data, phone calls, or messages that they intercept.  What little oversight of the programs exists is ineffectual and the congressional representatives that are supposed to be a second tier of oversight are supportive of the programs and have little will or desire to perform the oversight or ask the questions that they are tasked with.   

Four Americans have been killed by U.S. drones strikes and all have taken place overseas in areas with significant terrorist activity.  Tens of millions of Americans privacy rights in the U.S. have been trampled by the NSA, billions of phones call intercepted, and terabytes of data have been collected and stored.  While the loss of life and loss of privacy can hardly be equated, the difference lies in that the NSA surveillance took place within the U.S. (in addition to all of the rest of the world) and on American citizens who had given no indication or probable cause that they were terrorists or supporters of threats to U.S. national security.   

The surveillance programs also present a less detectable option for a government intent on subvert democracy or controlling power.  It is highly unlikely that a drone would ever occur in the U.S. and if one did it would be difficult to hide.  The result would riots and serious backlash against those in power or potentially a revolution.  Conversely, the surveillance programs go unseen, people to not the surveillance and intrusion of the government into their lives.  The information gleamed from this surveillance can be used to pressure political opponents into changing course, leaking damaging information about rivals, or preempting any challenge to state power.  With the physical evidence of the drone program there can at least be some limited form of accountability.  Videos can be taken of the attack and aftermath and witnesses of the attack may survive.  This can generate pressure on the government from the media or opposition parties if the government starts going too far.  The only reason that the public is aware of the wide range of NSA surveillance programs is because Edward Snowden leaked most of the information and promptly had to go on the run.  If the NSA programs continue in their current form and continue to expand, we may not get another person like Snowden who is willing to risk everything to expose it.  If that’s the case then it is unknown how far the government will go with the programs and what level of rights and privacy that they decide the people should sacrifice. 

Fear of another deadly attack has been the primary motivator for this dramatic expansion of the surveillance state.  I think that the Patriot Act was widely supported after the 9/11 attacks and Greenwald cites the governments interpretation of the Patriot Act as the primary legal basis for these surveillance programs.  To a large extent the public and the public’s representatives in government have been complicit in this expansion because their fears of an attack and in turn their willingness to allow the state to rapidly expand its intrusion into private lives.  What amount of liberty and privacy rights are worth sacrificing to be marginally more secure from terror attacks?  There have continued to be terror attacks both in the U.S. and around the world even with the massive scope of the NSA programs, so even with all their powers they cannot make the nation completely secure from terror attacks.  Finally if we lose the system of liberty and democracy that the U.S. was founded and built upon in the name of stopping terror, have we not let the forces of terrorism win?