It was made instead in the 1970s by the Senate’s Church Committee when it held hearings on the activities of the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA.ĭomestic surveillance intended to protect American citizens has been a part of the fabric of American life for more than a hundred years. Perhaps surprisingly, that warning was not issued in the wake of the cache of documents leaked by former civilian security contractor Edward Snowden to the Washington Post and the Guardian this past summer. The potential of the National Security Agency (NSA) “to violate the privacy of American citizens is unmatched by any other intelligence agency,” especially as telecommunication technology advances.

Read Origins for more on American current events and history: “Class Warfare” in American Politics, Detroit and America’s Urban Woes, Mass Unemployment, Populism and American Politics, Immigration Policy, the Mortgage and Housing Crisis, American Political Redistricting, and the American Two-Party System.Īlso be sure to catch our podcast History Talk with guests David Hadley, Nicholas Breyfogle, and Steven Conn as they discuss the NSA in the current national and global environment. Beyond the question of personal privacy in the digital age, however, are a set of structural questions as well: How can the judicial process be transparent while still preserving state secrets? How can we draw a line to distinguish between domestic surveillance and foreign spying? How does spying strain the relationship between the President and Congress? As historian David Hadley describes these are questions that have bedeviled American policy-makers, politicians, and citizens for over a century. Classified documents leaked by private contractor Edward Snowden have raised serious concerns about privacy rights both in the United States and internationally.

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