Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on the issue of fighting terrorism using nsa programs.

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on the issue of fighting terrorism using nsa programs. Terrorism results from religious extremists, states, insurgents and criminals.2 Due to the challenges faced by the government to fight terrorism, new technologies have emerged to assist with the fight against terror. Some of these technologies include private communication of individuals around the world and mass surveillance of U.S. citizens. The DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) reported that it has created an information technology that could allow access to personally identifiable information to be utilized in the fight against terrorism. As a result, this has attracted a lot of questions from the general public as well as political bodies on its effectiveness, legal and ethical standards. The concern revolves around the likelihood of the government utilizing personal information on permanent resident aliens and U.S. Citizens that have been gathered by private or public organizations without their consent.3 The reasons provided by the government for the use of these technologies have been shown to be inefficient, illegal and immoral.

According to the NSA, there are two programs that focus on foreign and domestic surveillance. The domestic program, ‘metadata program’ functions in accordance with section 215 of the USA Patriotic Act and consists of the gathering of call record data inclusive of times of calls and phone numbers. The foreign program ‘PRISM program’ works according to section 702 of (FISA) Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA Act permits a government to perform surveillance that targets the content of communication by non-U.S. citizens that are situated abroad. This surveillance obtains foreign intelligence data. President Obama in 2014 acknowledges the ‘legitimate privacy interests’ of the non-U.S and U.S. individuals as conformity to fundamental principles. He defines the activity of foreign intelligence information as a way of obtaining details in associations to activities, abilities, and intentions of foreign aspects or governments, terrorists, and organizations. In addition, President Obama defends the NSA programs stating that they are intended for the purpose of ‘detecting and countering’ terrorism, financial crimes, nuclear proliferation, a threat to U.S. forces and espionage.