United States of Secrets - Edward Snowden and Post-September 11th (UPDATED-5/15/14)

PBS aired a Frontline episode called "United States of Secrets". This episode was about the American government post-9/11 and their actions in dealing with surveillance.

They begin this showing by showing a computer screen displaying all of the documents that had been obtained. There are lists of different confidential documents, power points, pictures, and emails.

The people meeting with Edward were thrown off by the man they were meeting. They were expecting an older man, but instead were meeting a younger, skinny, student-like man. Also, meeting him in the hotel room was a little suspicious. They described that Snowden had pillows and blankets covering the doors so no one could listen in through the walls. This was a sign of danger for the group.

The interesting thing with the NSA is that it was created after the Pearl Harbor bombings to prevent another dangerous attack on American soil. We did not want something like these events to ever happen again, yet they did. No one knew how or why this happened, considering we were suppose to have knowledge on actions like this.

Bush was open to allowing the NSA to do what they wanted. He said "what do you want that you already can't do that would help prevent another 9-11." Chaney outlined the program as gathering data from phone calls from millions of Americans, and then using that data to search out possible targets. Bush was hesitant that this program would not be legal; he was then convinced by Michael Hayden that this program was necessary.

The people involved in this decision did not pass this right away. They were certainly concerned about the legality of this, but in the end, decided that this program was completely necessary for America's safety. General Hayden sited the Constitution in Article 2: "The president's authority as commander and chief".

William Binney, Former NSA agent. 

Thinthread. This is the brainchild of Bill Binney; it worked to sort through massive amounts of phone and email data. This program had a built in system that you could not gather data on American citizens, unless there was a court order saying they were allowed to take information on our people.

High-ranking NSA officials did not want anything to do with Bill's thinthread program (we later find out that they actually used it). They did not want to communicate with him as to why they were not planning on using his program. This was a little suspicious for some people because they knew that the NSA was gathering information on all people, even US citizens. Thinthread was actually being used by the NSA but they removed the part of the program that encrypted all US citizens information.  At the time, the NSA was operating under a "no questions asked" way of business (since they knew that their operations were becoming illegal).

At the time, no one in the government wanted to stand up and take full responsibility of their actions; they continued to beat around the bush, and make justifications for these programs.

Judge Collen Kollar-Kotelly

Judge Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the government was performing lawful actions. The President and high-ranking officials sought out reasons to justify that gathering information secretly was legal. After this ruling of warrantless search and seizure being legal, all actions were back on. President Bush acknowledged that they were accused of searching without warrants, he assured the American public in a speech that all of their findings were legal and through warrants.

Thomas Tamm (anonymous whistleblower) decided that he should call the New York Times and expose the government on their actions. After leaking this information, he returned to the shadows of the Justice Department. It has not been proven that he indeed leaked information and he has not been charged with anything.

When the government found out that Tamm "blew the whistle", they called up the New York Times immediately. The calling officials told the Times that all of the reports, are false and that they should not report on these disclosures. The editors of the Times were concerned that the White House was misleading them on certain information and that they should not run the story for legal purposes. The story about these programs was not run, for the time being.

After thinking things over, the Times reconsidered the story. The editors of the New York Times were called in to the oval office. The President and Hayden threatened the editors that they would be held accountable if there were to be another attack similar to 9-11. Even with this weight resting on their shoulders, they went on to publish the story.

After the story was run, President Bush spoke publicly and admitted the programs to in-fact be real and true. He downplayed the actions of the programs, though. Bush said that all findings were legal under the Constitution and that all of the surveillance was only of known suspects. He failed to mention that all citizens were at one point were watched. The lies from the government continued to pour in. General Hayden did the same when he spoke later. Hayden said that no one in the NSA considered this program to be worrisome. This is known to be a lie after some of the members were interviewed.

Thomas Drake was watching the speeches from the NSA. He thinks that the top ranking officials speaking were lying. Drake was not happy that they were lying to the public about what they were doing, considering, they were coming out about lying about the programs. Drake went to the Baltimore Sun to Siobhan Gorman to expose only "unclassified" documents.

Chaney was not happy with all of the leaks about their programs. Attorney General (2005-07) Alberto Gonzales was the lead detective in this investigation into the leakers. The FBI raid the houses of those considered to have been a whistleblower. All electronic devices were ceased. Drake was prime suspect number one as being the person who leaked to the New York Times, even though there was no evidence that could connect him to the New York Times, or the Baltimore Sun for that matter.

Senator Barrack Obama addressed the whistleblowers in his speeches for Presidency. He said that they will hold all people responsible, and that there will no longer be anymore secret wiretapping, email gathering, or other unwarranted surveillance of innocent citizens.

44th President, Barrack Obama

President Bush decided that he needs the help of Congress by amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This was a sneaky way by the President to actually allow the NSA to gather information on all foreign intelligence. It not only validated the legality of their recent investigations, but also gave them more power. At the time, the people did not read the fine print of FISA, therefore, did not realize what really was granted after this was passed.

After this bill went through Congress, Senator Obama had to make the decision whether to vote in favor of FISA. If he voted to pass this act, he would be contradicting his recent comments on halting further surveillance; if he voted to veto the act, people would be questioning what the purpose of the act truly is. He voted to pass the bill, and later became the 44th President of the United States. After being elected, Obama could have decided to take down the surveillance programs, but he opted out of doing so.

With all of the data being gather, the NSA needed highly-skilled computer programers to control their system. This is when twenty-five year old, Edward Snowden comes into play. He was a high school dropout, living only twenty minutes away from the NSA. Snowden enlisted into the military but was forced to leave after breaking both of his legs. Edward Snowden had the credentials that the NSA was looking for. In 2009, Snowden was working in Tokyo, Japan as an NSA contractor. He knew a great deal of details about the NSA and all of the information that they were capable of having their hands on. In his little investigation, Snowden found one of the most important documents about the program.

April 14, 2010, Thomas Drake was indicted for being the enemy of the state. He was charged with violating the Espionage Act. The government actually framed Thomas Drake. All of the files that the government had that Drake leaked were clearly labeled "unclassified". After ceasing these documents, they crossed this line of text off and wrote "classified". Days before the trial began, the charges on Drake were dropped!

Snowden did not want to take his findings to the New York Times. He went to the Washington Post with all he knew. Snowden had every single document he could ever imagine having and no one in the entire NSA knew that he had a single one of them. This is considered to be one of the biggest breaks in national security ever, and it was just getting started from there.