The benefits of domestic surveillance by the NSA outweigh the harms.
PRO
Resolution------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resolved: The benefits of domestic surveillance by the NSA outweigh the harms.
Contentions-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contention 1: NSA domestic surveillance stops terrorism.
Impacts
a. As a result of globalization and the information revolution, the trend of terrorism in the 21st century is towards mega-terrorism. Professor Anita Peresin writes in the Political Science Journal:
i. Contemporary terrorist organizations are harmonizing their activities with scientific and technological discoveries, and in particular with the Internet and communication technologies. Collectively, this phenomenon is known as mega-terrorism.
b. As Professor Graham Allison of the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, explains:
i. This is making it possible for smaller and smaller groups to kill larger and larger numbers of people.
c. This nearly-unimaginable potential for damage means we’re not just preventing another 9/11, but an event potentially far worse. Research from the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs estimates that the impact of mega-terrorism on a populated area would be catastrophic:
i. 500,000 people would be killed, and hundreds of thousands more would injured. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that such an attack "would stagger the world economy and thrust tens of millions of people into dire poverty," causing "a second death toll throughout the developing world." In short, America and the world would be changed forever.
Warrants
However, by intercepting terrorist communications and recognizing terrorist patterns, NSA surveillance prevents such catastrophes from happening, and reduces the magnitude of attacks that are successful. It does this in two ways:
1. First: Surveillance connects foreign intelligence with
Resolution------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resolved: The benefits of domestic surveillance by the NSA outweigh the harms.
Contentions-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contention 1: NSA domestic surveillance stops terrorism.
Impacts
a. As a result of globalization and the information revolution, the trend of terrorism in the 21st century is towards mega-terrorism. Professor Anita Peresin writes in the Political Science Journal:
i. Contemporary terrorist organizations are harmonizing their activities with scientific and technological discoveries, and in particular with the Internet and communication technologies. Collectively, this phenomenon is known as mega-terrorism.
b. As Professor Graham Allison of the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, explains:
i. This is making it possible for smaller and smaller groups to kill larger and larger numbers of people.
c. This nearly-unimaginable potential for damage means we’re not just preventing another 9/11, but an event potentially far worse. Research from the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs estimates that the impact of mega-terrorism on a populated area would be catastrophic:
i. 500,000 people would be killed, and hundreds of thousands more would injured. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that such an attack "would stagger the world economy and thrust tens of millions of people into dire poverty," causing "a second death toll throughout the developing world." In short, America and the world would be changed forever.
Warrants
However, by intercepting terrorist communications and recognizing terrorist patterns, NSA surveillance prevents such catastrophes from happening, and reduces the magnitude of attacks that are successful. It does this in two ways:
1. First: Surveillance connects foreign intelligence with