Americans Not Bothered by NSA Spying

Snap E Tom writes "According to a Washington Post poll, a majority (63%) of Americans 'said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism.' A slightly higher majority would not be bothered if the NSA collected personal calls that they made. Even though the program has received bi-partisan criticism from Congress, it appears that the public values security over privacy."

Comments

Yes, it was

[GillBates0]

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/poll s/postpoll_nsa_051206.htm:

This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone May 11, 2006 among 502 randomly selected adults.

Re:Yes, it was

[sgt_doom]

Also to the point (as I'm sure many intelligent /.ers will likewise mention), the questions on that poll were articulated to heavily favor the NSA - instead of asking:

Do you realize the reason why the charters of both the NSA and the CIA forbid spying on anyone within the borders of America?? (Answer: to avoid fascism from gaining a foothold in the US of A!)

Too late, it appears.....

Re:Yes, it was

[gobbo]

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

You, sir, and your fellow slashdotters, are representative of the only paltry, disempowered, cranky and nearly ineffective oversight we have left. When a trillion are spent on the military, 25 times more than Russia alone, many billions of that going into 'black' projects that even the president isn't allowed to know about; when there are over 700 military bases on foreign soil and no admission of imperial designs; when 'the Brotherhood' operates in the open, yet no-one really knows about them; when the PNAC is honest about their designs, and now has power but there isn't panic; then you know that complaining about things is of little use, however necessary.

Not to be a pessimist, or anything. There is a groundswell of dissent. But few, if any, really can grasp the entirety of global geopolitics, and just how many long-running unjust plans are well under way.

Zbigniw Brzezinski is one of those in the know, like Kissinger: "as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat."

Three things:

[TripMaster Monkey]

1. The poll questions say absolutely nothing about the current illegality of this sort of data-mining on U.S. citizens.
   
2. The second to last question from the poll:

   46. If you found out that the NSA had a record of phone numbers that you yourself have called, would that bother you, or not? IF YES: Would it bother you a lot, or just somewhat?
   
   -----------Yes------------
   NET A lot Somewhat No No opin.
   34 24 10 66 *
   

   
   
   
3. The last question from the poll (emphasis mine):

   47. Do you think it is right or wrong for the news media to have disclosed this secret government program?
   
   Right Wrong No opin.
   56 42 1
   

   
   
   

So you don't have to wait to load the link...

[cybercobra]

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

When you don't teach people about the importance of civil liberties, it's no wonder they don't defend them. Bring back civics classes!

MOD PARENT UP!

[mrchaotica]

It is important that we be reminded of the proper course of action when our system starts to fail (as it seems to be doing now):

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson

Re:Yay! For the USA!

[general_re]

Bush is the only president to be elected *twice* without winning the popular vote.

Ummm, what?

Thinking is all well and good, but it wouldn't hurt to complement the thinking with a bit of research.

Re:"Thank you for calling the U.S.A. ...."

[TimothyJones]

On the subject of synthetic females. I lived in Poland back in the 80's (time of a gov't imposed martial law and general civil unrest) and every time you picked up the phone, well there was that syn female "This call will be monitored. This call will be monitored, This...". That was the new dial tone. And they did monitor them too. For quite a few years. For a long while you could not even call abroad and our letters and packages, dometic and definitely otheriwse, more often than not arrived re-sealed with a big "CENSORED" stamp on them. That activity too was labeled as "protecting the country".

Honestly, I never dreamt that I'd be brought back to those scary, communist days. In the US of all places.

CNN Online poll tells different story

[frieko]

The CNN Online poll tells different story. It all depends who you ask: http://edition.cnn.com/POLLSERVER/results/24900.co ntent.html

Fake quote...

[monkeyfarm]

While the sentiment of the quote is good and all, it's also most likly made up. http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

Re:Yay! For the USA!

[bennomatic]

You're absolutely correct; I retract that portion of my statement.