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The spy factory, post 9/11: do you feel safer?

posted Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009 9:28am

See more on: Blogs, Foreign Policy, Laws & Law Enforcement, News & Current Affairs

Everyone has a story to tell about 9/11. For me, then a New Yorker, it was a physical experience. The smell of burning plastic. Charred papers falling from the sky. The endless walk to get home. The silence that filled the subways.

For the NSA, it was a wake-up call – both an actual crisis and a crisis of confidence.

Tonight at 7, "NOVA: The Spy Factory" takes us into the secret world of the National Security Agency (NSA), from 9/11 to the present. Watch the trailer now.

"The Spy Factory" looks at what more the NSA might have done to intercept the 9/11 terror plot and how it has ramped up surveillance ever since. Read a fascinating interview on how the NSA fell short at NOVA online.

Now that the NSA has been given increased license to eavesdrop, a product of Bush's war on terror, I wonder if we as a nation are better off.

It seems necessary in our day and age to take all these precautions, step up airport security, etc. But is safety – or the feeling of safety – coming at the cost of our individual freedoms?

-Elizabeth Mayer, RMPBS

Tune In

Nova
"The Spy Factory"

What's your point of view?

Stan Ames
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 3:59pm
Safer? Yes! Safe? No!

Those who would repeal the Patriot act are trying to weaken us and surrender our country. Liberals and Democrats will undo our great country for their own selfish but temporary gain.

Adam
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 4:04pm
The only thing we liberals have to gain by repealing the Patriot Act is the restoration of the principles of this free country. If that is selfish, so be it. There is no personal gain here unlike the previous administration who DID have personal and selfish interests in perpetuating the "war on terror" in the form of private military contracts and some foolish sense of cowboy pride.

The people of America are sick of the government being against us instead of part of us.

Belle M. Laylander
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 4:07pm
No, I do not feel safer or more secure. I truly believe the Patriot Act and other measures have made us more vulnerable, and created an atmosphere of anxiety and distrust in this country, plus creating fertile ground for terrorists to promote their agendas world wide. Our credibility and moral leadership in the world is essentially gone, and will need to be rebuilt from the bottom up. Thank you.

Jack McCracken
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 4:07pm
I have absolutely no problem with spying -- wiretapping, phonetapping, whatever. I also have absolutely no problem with keeping Gitmo and methods of extracting info. from prisoners (or is the politically correct word "detainees?")

lorelei
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 9:35pm
Awareness is key, 911 made us all more aware of the delicate state of feeling safe and how fragile that really is. Feeling, and being safe, are 2 different things. If securing that to some extent means losing some privacy then so be it. I don't want my rights violated,maybe it's naive, but I think if your'e not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about??! right?

Reese McKay
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 9:44pm
The Patriot Act and other current excessive powers being exercised by our Federal government have moved us AWAY from true conservative values. True conservatives have always insisted on LESS centralized government powers, not more. Some common sense approach to national security is needed, but not the current bloated "homeland security" bureaucracy that only gives those among us who are easily frightened (whatever their personal politics) a false sense of security while removing more of our freedoms and creating that much more of a "nanny" state. Real conservatives find this disgusting and sissy-like. Republicans would have been howling bloody murder if a Democratic president had attempted to create the homeland security bureacracy and a so-called "Patriot Act."

Hugh
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 › 6:06am
One of the best programs on Homeland Security (or lack thereof)! I think one of the main points is the fact that the NSA with it's SIGINT could have probably prevented 9/11, had they just shared the info with other intel agencies such as the CIA and FBI. The then head of NSA stated in so many words that he could not approach someone for questioning if that person had just crossed the border from Canada to the U.S. because that person was now an American. Balderdash! To be an American, you must be an American citizen, either through birth or getting your papers through proper channels. Previous to this program, I had reservations about Pres. Bush and his Patriot Act. I now am convinced that he acted correctly. Our new president needs to insure himself that all of our intel agencies are functioning efficiently and that they share their collected info.

Robert Lockhart
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 › 3:21pm
We watched Nova last night. One glaring omission was that the FISA act will grant a wiretap warrant up to 72 hours AFTER the tap is in place. Before FISA became irrelevant(or ignored, take your pick) over 20,000 requests for wiretaps. Only 4 requests was denied!!!!

Robert
Thursday, February 5, 2009 › 1:21pm
I appreciated the recent Nova program on the NSA. I believe all of the freedoms we enjoy today have been paid for on battlefields over time. Unlike Elizabeth, most of us did not experience 9/11 first hand, but we all experienced it, nevertheless. I have watched a number of programs on this, the most important event that has taken place in my lifetime, from the conspiracy theory suggested in Loose Change to the sanitized timeline of National Geograpic's Inside 9/11. As a law-abiding citizen, the risk of my phone being tapped seems a very small price to pay. I support the Patriot Act and many measures to prevent a recurrence of what happened on our soil in 2001. Even those of us not on the front lines of the war against terror should be willing to pay such a price for our continued freedom.