Protection Of Our Patriotism Protecting And Censoring...

Protection of our Patriotism Protecting and censoring secretive and important documents is a crucial part of the United States’ national security. Without the censorship and protection of these highly secretive and classified documents, our weapons systems, troop locations, citizens, and server information could all be compromised. This would have a catastrophic affect on our country in future wars and in defense of our nation. Although the First Amendment states that the government does not have the right to censor certain material, the Patriot Act signed by President Bush permits the government to limited censorship and intelligence operations on the general public when national security is jeopardized. The U.S Freedom of Information†¦show more content†¦The government must safeguard the information these programs contain in order to keep the data from being accessed on websites such as WikiLeaks. National Security depends on the NSA and when their intelligence gat hering operations are jeopardized, the security of millions of Americans is immediately compromised. Information released by BusinessInsider reveals that â€Å"[f]ive years into Obama’s presidency, government documents regarding the NSA were censored a record 98 percent of the time, as the administration cites the reason being national security† (Gillum par.17). This leads us to believe that the government is trying to repair the damage done by Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks. â€Å"Edward Snowden said he had no intention of taking military secrets, but statistics from the NSA reveal that he may have taken up to 31,000 military documents, and a whopping 1.7 million documents outlying our security programs in total.†(Kelly par.5) These facts indicate that his true intentions were criminal and that he was trying to harm the nation and explain why he has been charged under the United States Espionage Act, and faces 30 years in prison. Releasing these documents to cou ntries such as Russia and China, as Snowden has done, gives â€Å" [other countries] a road map of what we know†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Kelley par.28). Although freedom of information advocates such as Senator Rand Paul praise the releasing of these classified documents, facts and evidence