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Analysis: The Privacy vs. Security Conundrum

Council on Foreign Relations

February 27, 2008
Author: Greg Bruno

The delicate balancing act of maintaining national security while preserving civil liberties seems to get more complicated with each new generation of information technology. The House-Senate stalemate over extending a warrantless wiretapping law marks the latest case in point. President Bush says his ability to prevent terrorist attacks has been jeopardized by the infighting. House Democrats deny the charge, and Democratic Senators accuse the president of resorting to scare tactics (WashPost) to push an agenda. Similar concerns are now manifesting online. A “cyber initiative” (WashPost) unveiled by the president in January aims to expand the intelligence community’s role in monitoring U.S. information networks. Bush has said little publicly about the program, but some envision a repeat of the wiretapping imbroglio. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has called for the program to be put on hold (PDF) until Congress can adequately review it.

Politics aside, security experts agree on the need for flexibility in protecting the U.S. homeland. Threats from conventional terrorist attacks and, as this new Backgrounder explains, cyberspace, are of increasing concern to military and intelligence officials. Yet the row over monitoring communications in the name of national defense illustrates a growing divide between supporters of increased surveillance and protectors of civil liberties.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the AP the expiration of the wiretapping law could lead intelligence agents to “miss the very information we need to prevent some horrendous act from taking place in the United States.” Ed Giorgio, a security consultant for McConnell’s agency, told the New Yorker in January that policing the Internet “would mean giving government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer, or web search.” Civil liberties advocates bristle at the thought.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.