Privacy and Security in America According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the word privacy is defined as, “the quality or state of being apart from company or observation,” and the word security is defined as, “the state of being protected or safe from harm.” Now the question is, how do these words correlate? The answer is simple. If we did not have security, the idea of privacy would cease to exist. In the United States, we have the freedom to communicate freely, but if we wish to keep that freedom we must accept that the government may watch over us more closely from time to time. Regardless, I believe that the government respects us when it comes to our privacy. In an article posted on The Los Angeles Times website, columnist Andrew Liepman writes about the Snowden scandal and where he believes the government should draw the line between privacy and security.
In May 2013, a former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and NSA (National Security Agency) employee named Edward Snowden deliberately disclosed classified information involving the top-secret United States and British government surveillance programs to the media. Liepman, a former CIA officer and deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, makes it clear that anyone following the Snowden, “saga,” should be made aware of two very important things. One being that, “many things need to be kept secret in today’s dangerous world, the line between “secret” and “not secret” is fuzzy rather than stark, and if the goal is security, the harsh truth is that we should often err toward more secrets rather than fewer.” Two, the government goes to great lengths to keep the lives of American people private. It was quite easy to see which side the author was leaning towards. I, on the other hand, before reading this article was unsure as to which side I was on. I believe that Americans have the right to live in a private and secure country, but at what cost? How much does the government intervene into our lives?
Liepman continues on in his article and shares many personal experiences to attract the reader to trust his credibility. He states, “I know [these things] because I was on the inside, I have long held security clearances, and I participated in many of the activities [Snowden] describes.” Liepman brings up a topic that many Americans were made aware of, Al Qaeda. He shares that, “[the government] didn’t operate in secrecy because [they] were ashamed…[they] operated in the dark because [they] had to.” Al Qaeda was watching every move that America was making. America is a safe place to live because we have, “made a point of understanding their methods better than they understand ours,” (Liepman). I found this part of the article to be very powerful. After the attacks on September 11th, many Americans, myself included, were unsure of the future. I believe the government was doing what they thought was best. We, as a country, needed to stay quiet in order to avoid another attack.
Liepman makes it clear that the intelligence community is not keeping things hidden from the American people because they do not trust their country; they are simply doing it to keep our country secure from those that wish to do us harm. Referring back to the Snowden scandal, Liepman is frustrated by the frenzy the leaked information cost the government. He, again using personal experiences, tries to convince his readers that there are many moments he wishes the American people could have seen. Liepman says, “I wish I could tell people the amazing things I witnessed during my 30 years in the CIA, that I’ve never seen people work harder or more selflessly, that for little money and long hours, people took it for granted that their flaws would be scrutinized and their success ignored.” As the reader, I found his use of personal stories to be very effective. Why would I not trust someone that was behind the closed doors?
One of my favorite things about Liepman’s article is his use of humor. I find when humor is used it breaks the barrier between the writer and the reader. Many Americans like to believe that when someone states that their privacy has been invaded, they are automatically assume they are being monitored 24/7. Liepman goes on to say that, “the government is not interested in your conversations with your aunt, unless of course, she is a key terrorist leader. More than 100 billion emails were sent every day last year – 100 billion, every day. In that vast mass of data lurk a few bits that are of urgent interest and vast terabytes of tedium that are not.” I truly believe that Americans are too self-conscious. I cannot even imagine how the government would ever be able to follow and document the lives of every American citizen. It would be impossible, and very unrealistic.
Towards the end of the article, Liepman focuses in on how the media has played a big role when it comes to the Snowden scandal. “Many news outlets have spent more time examining ways the government could abuse the information it has access to while giving scant mention to the lengths to which the intelligence community goes to protect privacy. [The government] has spent enormous amounts of time and effort figuring out how to disaggregate the important specks from the overwhelming bulk of irrelevant data,” says Liepman. I do not believe that the American people should trust everything they hear and read through the media. The media is creating the news that will sell, not the news that is the actual, 100% truth.
Liepman shares some of his own truths when it comes to privacy and what really happens within the intelligence community. He witnessed a small amount of employees breaking the privacy rules and ended up having to fire people, “good people,” (Liepman). Even after working for the CIA, Liepman still openly criticizes some of the work of the government. He states that, “some things that are classified probably don’t need to be. That may undermine public trust and dilute our ability to protect the data that really need protecting.” It is no big secret; the American government is not perfect. They are many untrustworthy people within the system, but the good triumphs over. The one thing Snowden accomplished by releasing the information he had access to was gain authority and traffic what information was getting out to the American people. Liepman admits that the government has been slow to react, but that does not mean they do not care about our privacy.
By the end of this article, I was certain of three things. First, the government keeps some things secret in order to protect us from those that wish the United States would cease to exist. Second, the government does not have the time or the resources to listen in on every phone call that is made. We are not important unless we are shielding a terrorist or their future plan of attacks. And finally, we cannot trust what the media tells us. The media is just as clueless as the American people when it comes to what really happens behind government doors. I believe that, despite what Snowden has come out with, the government is doing their best to protect the American people. I believe that the government respects our privacy and I truly believe that we live in a secure country with no lines being crossed.

Works Cited
Liepman, Andrew. "What did Edward Snowden get wrong? Everything - latimes.com." Los Angeles Times - California, national and world news - latimes.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oe-0811-liepman-snowden-and-classified-informat-20130811,0,3708320.story>.