National Security vs. Personal Security

A WebQuest for 12th Grade Civics & Government Students

Designed by Joshua Bleier

joshua_bleier@yahoo.com

Introduction

From the very start, the United States has been faced with a difficult dilemma; how do you resolve the inherent conflict between protecting your citizens and protecting your citizen's civil rights?

The requirements involved in protecting a nation include finding out who the bad guys are, and what, when, and how they intend to do people harm.

But in order to find out who these people are, and what they're up to, it seems critical to look into their private lives; to 'eavesdrop' on their conversations, to check their homes for weapons and controlled substances, to find out who they're interacting with and what these people have in mind.

In other words, to violate their civil rights (The rights to privacy, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom to peaceably assemble).

How does our government walk this tightrope, balancing the requirements of national security with the inherent personal rights of the citizenry, especially in post-9/11 America?

In order to develop a better understanding of this dilemma (And perhaps a stronger appreciation for the difficult task that faces our Intelligence and Investigation agencies), here's what going to happen:

• You'll become a principal agent of the FBI,
• tasked with finding out about the intentions of a domestic organization,
• who recent information suggests has changed it's agenda from an activist role to a violent one.

You'll start with information from a key informant, and a set of directives from your Bureau supervisor and FBI lawyers on what you're allowed to do and when and how you get authorization.

You'll also be asked to familiarize yourself with key portions from a couple of somewhat important documents called the Constitution and the Bill or Rights...

Then, it's up to you to find out whether this organization has indeed 'gone rogue', what, if anything, it intends to do, when and where it intends to strike, and foil the plan, without completely trampling the civil rights of the organization's members and embarrassing the Bureau and the current administration.

So, are you up to the task? Can you defend the nation without abrogating it's citizen's rights? We're counting on you.

Task

For this Webquest you will be acting as:

• Senior FBI agent Dirk Thunderchin.
• You're a 10 year veteran of the force;
• you've seen administrations come and go,
• you've watched administrations pendulum between
  • Investigative complacency during the 90's
  • to acute paranoia since September 11th, 2001,

  when the World Trade Center 'Twin Towers' disappeared from the the New York skyline, a brazen attack from a group of outside extremists.

But recently, you received word from an informant from an 'inside' organization the Bureau has been concerned with (She's Citizen Ruth, and she's allegedly been an active member of this organization, and she's become increasingly uncomfortable with it's new direction).

Your job (Should you decide to accept it) is this:

• Find out as much as you can about this organization, called WASP ONE;
• Decide, based on what you have, if this group is potentially dangerous enough to warrant a wiretap to find out specifics about their intentions.
• Write up a report to your supervisor indicating
  • Why you believe a wiretap should be authorized, or,
  • if the evidence points to WASP ONE being benign, why they should be left alone.
• Find out what happens based on your decision, and finally,
• Write a follow-up document either defending you decision, or explaining what you would have done differently, and why, in light of what occurs.

Sound exciting?

It's not. It's repetitive, difficult, time-consuming work. You have to wade through volumes and volumes of information, dredge through the minutiae of online data, filter out what's noise so you can listen to what's truly, crucially relevant to your case.

And you have reams and reams of rules that you have to follow in order to avoid violating anyone's civil rights and getting your Bureau a Public-Relations black eye.

So your job NOW includes, making sure during the course of your investigation:

• You don't violate anyone's civil rights (Most importantly, the rights to privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure);
• You follow the federal rules of evidence of the FBI;
• You don't get fired, your spouse doesn't leave you, your children don't hate you, your dog doesn't growl whenever you get near, and you don't end up in jail, or worse, with your smiling face plastered all over CNN.

Your assignment will conclude when you write up your final report, detailing your process, and either justifying your actions or indicating what you would have done differently.

Still sound intriguing? Then read on, valiant agent.

Process

Some Background
As a senior agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it's your job to go through voluminous information daily to figure out what groups and individuals are innocuous, and which may be priming for some type of illegal action within the borders of the United States.

One group you've had your eye on for a while is WASP ONE, a group of White Anglo Saxon Protestants who have been working within the law, trying the garner support for laws making theirs the dominant religion in the U.S. Up until recently, this was a relatively harmless group, but within the past few weeks, you've noticed that their rhetoric has become increasingly vitriolic, and now you're concerned.

Fueling you concern is Citizen Ruth, a new informant within the WASP ONE. She has been a loyal member, but has become alienated by the change in tenor of her colleagues; due to her fears and recent events, she has sent you an urgent message.

You'll also have to learn a little bit about recently implemented laws, including the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, and the public backlash caused by these new laws headed by civil rights groups.

The Steps

1. Take a look at the WASP ONE home page from 3 months ago,...
2. ...and take a look at it today. Notice any differences?
3. Here's the note from Citizen Ruth...
4. Read a little bit about The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001...
5. A bit too tedious and incoherent (It is for most humans)? Try this Summary.
6. Now take a look at some of the public backlash.
7. Civil Rights organizations like the ACLU and Amnesty International have been working hard to repeal these new laws.
8. Finally, here's a directive from your senior supervisor concerning your powers and constraints as an FBI agent.

Things have changed dramatically since 9/11. In previous years, there was equal attention paid to national security and civil rights, with groups like the ACLU helped tilt the balance slightly in favor for individuals; since September of 2001, however, the pendulum has swung in favor of national security. Not convinced? Take a look at the FBI Priorities page, and notice where national security and civil rights priorities are placed...

Step 1: Get more Information, or Leave Them Alone
OK, what do you do now? Do you believe that WASP ONE is up to no good, enough to get a warrant for a wiretap or for search of their homes and businesses? Or are they a benign organization, despite their increasingly caustic rhetoric? Here are some suggestions...

If you decide that you need more information, you'll need clearance from your supervisor to get it. To get that clearance, you'll have to submit a report outlining the following:

• All the information you have currently that leads you to believe that further investigation is warranted.
• The information you hope to get.
• How you intend to get it.

However, if you decide that WASP ONE is just venting, your report should indicate

• Why you believe they aren't a threat, despite the malicious statements on their web site.
• What laws and/or rules you believe should govern the FBI's decision in not moving forward on WASP ONE.

Submit either of these as a report via email to your supervisor. You'll receive an email back indicating either:

• You have been cleared to extend your investigation, with instructions on how to proceed;
• Your request has been denied, with a stated reason for denial and what further evidence or information you'll need to include for resubmission.

Step 2 - What Happened? What did you do right/wrong?

Your FBI supervisor will send back an email to you that includes a newspaper article. This article will shed light on how events played out, and whether you made the right or wrong decision.

Either way, your supervisor is going to want a statement from you detailing your beliefs in light of the article. You'll have to either

• Defend you decision; back it up with the logic behind your original report and rules that buttress your point of view,
• Explain what you should have done, and explain why.

This report will be your final submission; you'll be contacted by your supervisor on whether you're getting a medal, or going to jail!

Evaluation

You will be evaluated based on the 2 reports you submit; the initial report either requesting a warrant to investigate WASP ONE further or leave them alone, and the final report detailing your beliefs in light of what has occurred since your decision.

Below is a table indicating what constitutes excellent/exemplary results and what represents merely beginning or developed reporting:

Conclusion

So, how did you do? Did you decide to investigate WASP ONE? How did that play out? Did you decide to leave them alone? What did that lead to?

Talk to your classmates afterward and find out what they decided to do and how their scenarios turned out; the results will likely surprise you.

The results of your scenario and the results of your colleagues should lead you to the big question; is there a clear-cut right answer? When is it obviously correct to go after a domestic organization, and when is it clearly appropriate to leave them alone?

By now you should begin to realize that these are extremely difficult questions to answer.

Credits & References

Images of the CIA and FBI emblems were accessed via Google's Image Search.

Images of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights were also obtained through Google.

Images of the Officers in various investigative and defensive poses were obtained from Barry's Free Clip Art Web Site.

The image of the protesters and the Peace symbols were adapted from images obtained from www.free-graphics.com.

The design of this WebQuest was heavily influenced by The WebQuest Page, and a generic WebQuest Design Pattern was adapted for the role-playing scenario.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

Last updated on July 7th, 2003. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page