Trust Us

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I’m not a paranoid person who believes the government is monitoring my thoughts and will send black helicopter gunships to shoot me. I also generally support President Obama, having voted for him twice. Yet those two things are in conflict now after the revelation that the National Security Administration is mining data from nine major Internet providers.

I no longer trust the Obama administration. The fact that the PRISM program was secret to begin with gives me no faith that these people will do the right thing and not monitor non-threatening Internet and phone usage from Americans. I am a drop in the bucket in this country and my disillusionment will mean nothing but trust is still a crucial part of governing. But on this issue, this president and this administration have totally lost my trust and it’s their own fault.

One person who was familiar with the PRISM program said the NSA can “see your ideas form as you type them.” And we’re supposed to have what sort of reassurance that this power will only be used for good? A promise from Congress? A secret judicial decision?

Nothing to see here, folks. Just trust that we’re keeping you safe. If you’ve done nothing wrong, then you’ve got nothing to fear. Right?

Furthermore, what assurance do we have that the information that the NSA obtains from these servers, private information on you and me, will not leak to third parties such as terrorists? The existence of the PRISM program itself leaked so it does not inspire confidence that the acquired information is safe. (Plus, the PRISM slides that leaked look really crappily designed and that makes this whole operation look incompetent.)

This is especially a disgrace since Obama is simply continuing the spirit of the Patriot Act and the tactics of the Bush administration that he once decried. As a senator, Obama once said Bush’s surveillance policies “put forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide.” It was wrong under Bush and it’s just as wrong under Obama. I’m kind of too angry about this to express myself but this New York Times editorial says what I can’t: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?src=me&ref=general .

This is a president who once supported transparency but now we discover has maintained various secret programs to obtain the phone records of millions of Americans, the phone records of journalists and also has a backdoor into the most popular online servers. Let me guess: The administration’s response will be “You’ll just have to trust us to ensure that we do not abuse our powers.”

No dice. The fact that these programs have been going on in secret does not inspire confidence. It is also a concern that the alleged backdoor access into these companies’ servers bypasses any safeguards such as the consent of the companies or any warrants or court approval. The government apparently has unfettered access now. This all may be legal under the Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act but this type of thing can make the public, like me, lose trust in the White House. And that is something that the president will have to answer for. 

And if anybody in the NSA is monitoring this blog post, I respectfully request that you shove it up your ass.