The Impact of the Surveillance After 9/11

The 9/11 terrorist attacks is a day that will remain in the hearts of every American. The government increased their monitoring after those attacks affecting even innocent citizens. We are shown the effects of this surveillance by the latest scandals such as the NSA scandal. There are also numerous reports of the travel agency TSA going out of line. The impact of the surveillance after 9/11 affected every person one shape or form, long lines at security checkpoints, and increased government monitoring.

One may be wondering how it affects me? It affects everyone by the increased spying and paranoia the government has installed on us. For example, the government installed a new program to watch threats within our borders, but that program as failed according to Stephen Flynn of the Foreign Affairs “THE UNITED STATES has made a mess of homeland security. This is hardly surprising.

The policymakers responsible for developing homeland security policy in the wake of September 11, 2001, did so under extraordinary conditions and with few guideposts.” (Flynn 2). What this basically means the homeland security program should had longer time to implement, but the result of the rushed program is bad policies and oversight. Perhaps having the government spying is not the best answer another instance as written by Stephen Flynn “It often falls to ordinary citizens–family, friends, neighbors, and bystanders–to lend a hand in times of crisis.” (Flynn 3). It demonstrates that the government can deal with less monitoring, and have the same impact as now but they won’t do that as they want to spy on us 24/7.

One’s trust level with the government in regarding security checks have decreased. In pre 9-11, one was able to walk to the gate with loved ones to send them off, but that’s not the case now with the TSA being formed. Citizens have taken security in their own hands by purchasing more security equipment then they did before as John Dianico stated” People that were security conscious prior to 9/11 have become much more security conscious” (Dewitt and Tibbetts 2). They thought the government could not handle it own their own and decided to protect themselves. People have to be a little more conscious as the next attack might be on their own property. Rights for Americans to keep their web communications private as dissolved per Congress “Privacy rights also have been eroded because, in the wake of 9/11, Congress dismantled the “wall” between government surveillance for domestic law enforcement purposes and surveillance activities for foreign-intelligence gathering.” (Shamsi, Hina and Abdo, Alex 4). It shows the attacks on 9/11 allowed Congress to invade our privacy rights.

Many people lost a sense of privacy rights after the terrorists attack the United States of America on September the 11, 2001. The resulting impact led to changes in our everyday lives many major. We are now seeing results of government oversight as a conclusion of the 9/11 attacks. Our private communications rights are coming under attack as well. The Terrorist attacks of 9/11 resulted in increased government monitoring which had effects of increased security lines, privacy rights being violated, and oversight by our government.

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