The following was written by SFL Campus Coordinator Chris Brown.  
National Security Agency surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations have brought to light many previously unknown, though long suspected, assaults on the privacy of American citizens. Libertarian and other civil liberty-oriented groups have long warned against this type of Orwellian mass surveillance, even before the issue became a part of our common political dialectic. Greenwald’s systematic and continual release of new details about the growing scope of government surveillance has prevented the issue from being swept under the rug and demands to be addressed by the American public.

The latest details released by Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain on July 9, 2014 exposed five specific targets of surveillance which reveal that contrary to the NSA’s claims, their efforts go far beyond targeted surveillance limited to catching terror suspects and their accomplices. All five are Muslim-Americans and hold positions of esteem within American society: professors, lawyers, Muslim civil rights advocates. There is no way to know why the government targeted them at this time. However, all of them have denied ties to extremist Islam, and do not support radical Jihad.

It’s no surprise that many of the targets of surveillance are Muslim-American, given the current focus of American national security on threats from radical Islam.  However, in a recent Reddit AMA, Greenwald promised more revelations from the Snowden documents, and implied that we would soon see reports detailing the surveillance of Americans who are not targeted because of religious ties. This strongly suggests that the domestic surveillance program is much more widespread than simply curbing the threat of radical Islam.

If Muslim college professors and civil rights activists who have no ties to radical Islam are being put under surveillance, what other justifications might be used to monitor an individual? We have already witnessed scandals regarding IRS discrimination against Tea Party groups, and Attorney General Eric Holder revitalized a task force to combat “domestic terror groups” in June. Clearly, it’s not out of the question to think that almost any American could be a target of mass surveillance.

Even those not being specifically targeted have reason to be concerned. A Washington Post report from earlier this month revealed that of the data collected by PRISM and other NSA surveillance, 90% came from individuals who are not targets. The data reviewed by the Post represents 160,000 online conversations from over 11,000 individual accounts, the vast majority of which is people who are only tangentially related to a target through mutual use of a server which the NSA follows through its Internet Protocol Address. The identities of these unnamed Americans caught up in this surveillance are typically redacted and replaced with generic identifiers. The content of these conversations are often extremely personal, and the implications for the future are troubling. Reports of national security employees abusing access to the surveillance programs for personal uses, such as spying on romantic partners or love interests further raises questions concerning the collection of such personal data by the government.

Additionally, Snowden leaks have revealed further government interference with the media. In July of 2013, the UK newspaper The Guardian was forced to destroy hard drives containing NSA files leaked by Edward Snowden, under threat of legal action by the UK government. According to newly released information from NSA emails obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act, it has been revealed that the Obama administration was contacted about the situation by the British government prior to the hard drives being destroyed. These facts fly directly in the face of the Obama administration’s claims that they were not made aware of the situation and had no involvement in the actions of the British government. 

As the Snowden documents continue to be released by the press, one thing is clear. Though government spokespersons and officials have long denied that these programs are infringing upon the privacy rights of American citizens, each new revelation refutes the official statements which precede it. While the new information made public by Snowden and the press is extensive and exposes a massive program of Orwellian surveillance on Americans and the world, what is more concerning is what will be revealed next, and more so, the information that will never be revealed. Some information is being withheld by the media at the request of the government to protect immediate US interests. This is an understandable and legitimate position. However, this means we must assume that the information that has been leaked is only the tip of the iceberg. This, coupled with efforts by the NSA and the federal government as a whole to deny and minimize exposure, which are quickly refuted by the documents released, displays a disturbing trend towards invasive government abuse of privacy that can only be reversed if Americans continue to voice strong and consistent outrage.