September 11th 2001 is a day that will never be forgotten in our once thought invincible country, for that was the date when all Americans were impacted by the horrific terrorist attack. The World Trade Center was destroyed, the Pentagon damaged with a toll of over 3,000 dead. The whole world steps back in attempt to gasp for some sort of hope, even our president ran and hid with the rest of the country not knowing if any more damage was to be laid upon us. But through all the smoke and rubble an American flag is raised and the hope and beliefs that life will go on and America will stand tall. With thousands dead and over a billion dollars in damage done the worst is still on the horizon. Discussion on whom to blame, why it happened and how it could have been prevented poor into the media, into our homes. Almost immediately solutions were thought of and action was taken. One solution happened to be a new the new Department of Homeland Security.
It has been over a year now and the steps are just getting to a start as Congress debates the new Department of Homeland Security. Congress has said, "that we will approve of the department even if it takes weeks" (Firestone 17). The new department would include the FBI's national infrastructure protection centers and the General services Administration's federal computer responds center (Fisher 1). This new Homeland Security is supposed to protect us from terrorists by means of surveillance in phone taps, e-mail, and other methods needed.
The surveillance of people will be a major part of the new department. FBI has started trying to open the lives of hundreds of mostly young Muslim men living in the Unites States. This is done in the belief that there are still Al-Quida trained terrorists that remain in the country. Every FBI office in the country carries out this surveillance. This involves 24 hour monitoring of all sources of communication whether that be phones, emails, and internet use as well as credit card charges, their travels and there visits to neighborhoods, gathering places and even mosques (Shenon 19).
