On September 11, 2001, the world watched in horror as four American planes were hijacked by Muslim extremists. Two planes flew into the World Trade Center, another flew into the Pentagon, and yet another plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
There were not quite 3,000 reported fatalities in the 9/11 attacks. After these attacks, the American government was left scrambling to find out how the terrorists managed to smuggle weapons into airports and onto planes. Since then, the American government has heightened security and increased surveillance to such a level that it often violates its citizens’ constitutional right to privacy. Though terrorism remains a prevalent issue for American security, the significantly greater issue at hand is that Americans have lost their privacy.
The Founding Fathers passed the Bill of Rights over 200 years ago to protect ten necessary rights to individual freedom. However, due to the recent spike in terrorism combined with the Patriot Act and heightened public security, Americans have lost their privacy, and at times, forfeited rights established in the Bill of Rights. The right to free speech and press is compromised by the Homeland Security Act, which allows the government to monitor Americans’ conversations, both verbally and technologically. Heightened airport security will often search travelers with little reason or regard to the individual, which could easily be considered unfair search and seizure. Individuals have been unjustly detained for hours, days, months, even years because of heightened national security – American citizen Jose Padilla was originally detained in May 2002, held for nearly three years before trial was held, and did not receive a sentence until January 2008. The recent spike in terrorism does not make these violations of constitutional rights acceptable - there is no reason or circumstance that can ever be of greater importance than that of one’s individual rights.
Undoubtedly, at some time or another, American citizens will ask their government for protection and security. Artist Michael Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times humorously illustrated this in a cartoon of naked citizens (strategically covered by coffee cups and newspapers) on an airplane, the result of asking to “feel safer” Ramirez is making a distinct point: the American government has been maintaining and aggressively defending national security but one cannot help but question the legality of the situation. National security seems to be expanding exponentially, even verging on ridiculously unfathomable. Nevertheless, the more Americans forfeit their rights, the easier it is for them to picture being forbidden to wear clothes on a plane. Ramirez simply emphasizes the fact that American citizens will never ask their government to violate their constitutional rights.
The government is already performing physical searches, monitoring calls and online communication, and accessing personal information. These very actions violate the third principle of the “Code of Fair Information Practices” which states: “There must be a way for a persona to prevent information about the person that was obtained for one purpose from being used or made available for other purposes without the person’s consent.” What is actually being accomplished by violating American privacy?
It is possible that in violating American privacy, the government could identify future terror plots. However, it is also possible that one day a power-hungry politician or government agent will abuse his ability to access personal information and/or communications. This information breach could result in a violation of rights similar to that of the Watergate scandal, or it could explode into an Apartheid-scale violation of rights. After all, any large scale violation of rights never occurs overnight – it begins with the loss of a few privileges, and then escalates rapidly. In Dear Homeland Security, We Have Found the Enemy, He is Us, Ed Bice says: “We [cannot] achieve anything noble through such ignoble means.”
In his book, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century, author Simson Garfinkel outlines what can and will happen, should the government continue to breach citizens’ privacy. He accurately compares privacy to the human body: just as the human body needs its skin to prevent against outside intrusions and function effectively, humans need their privacy to protect their integrity and subsequent functionality.
A continued violation of American rights will not deter terrorism. It will only transform the extremist enemy from Arabs into Americans. When America reaches the point when it cannot trust its government or its neighbors, it will turn against itself, therefore making itself an easy target for the terrorists it was so eager to forestall.
We have already given up too many rights in the name of national security. Privacy is an essential right - established by the Founding Fathers and secured by the Bill of Rights for all future generations of Americans. We cannot deny the right from which all other rights stem. Privacy is a necessary and fundamental right that cannot be imposed upon, regardless of reason, time, or circumstance.
