In defense of the government's wiretaps

To the Editor: This is in response to Toby T. Ryan’s comment regarding the Fourth Amendment and the government’s NSA program. I am with the majority of Americans who do not have a problem with the government’s wiretapping program. We are fighting an enemy that does not wear uniforms, does not come from one specific country and wants nothing better than to see us dead. The best weapon we have to prevent another terrorist attack is information. The NSA program involves international communications only; so unless you’re calling Iraq, Yemen, Iran or other terrorist-friendly locations, your phone calls and computers are safe from government intervention. In many court cases in the past, the courts held that warrantless searches for foreign intelligence purposes are constitutional if they met certain criteria, one being if it is a matter of national security. The legality of wiretapping with regard to the Fourth Amendment was summed up in 1984 United States v. Duggan by the Second Circuit which said that the President had the inherent power to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance to collect foreign intelligence information, and that such surveillances constituted an exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Susan Paladino Hardyston