The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, shocked the United States and the world. The United States had never experienced anything like it before and didn’t want to experience it again. The attacks were taken as a wake-up call for the government to ramp up foreign and domestic security measures to ensure nothing like it would happen again. [1] The crisis brought unity to the country and lawmakers, helping many extensive legislative pieces to be passed with little pushback. “Hastily passed 45 days after 9/11 in the name of national security, the Patriot Act was the first of many changes to surveillance laws…While most Americans think it was created to catch terrorists, the Patriot Act actually turns regular citizens into suspects.” [2] The extent to which Americans were being surveyed was not well known until the brave steps of a whistleblower made the information public to journalists. That whistleblower was Edward Snowden. The next six posts will inform the reader about Edward Snowden and his contribution to journalism as well as the team members assigned to cover this event and finally a bibliography detailing sources that were cited.
Image Credits:
Chip Somodevilla, The National Security Agency on March 13, 2015 in Fort Meade, Maryland, Photograph, NBC News, 13 March 2015, https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1240w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2020_12/2179336/171005-nsa-building-ew-156p.jpg.
