Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Benjamin Franklin, November 15, 1755

A year ago today, Glenn Greenwald published the first article on the extent of NSA surveillance, based on documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Prior warnings by members of the US Congress, whistleblowers and others had gone un-headed. Effective Congressional oversight was circumvented by secret Executive Branch interpretations of relevant laws.

After the June 5th revelation last year, most members of Congress were shocked, even the author of the Patriot Act.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives recently attempted to end mass government surveillance of Americans via the USA FREEDOM Act. Some initial supporters, like House Judiciary Committee member, Zoe Lofgren, withdrew their support for the Act after amendments modified its effectiveness. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the Act “gutted”.

The USA FREEDOM Act moves to the Senate for debate and likely further modification. The public debate over the relationship between freedom and safety in our increasingly digital world continues to deepen.

Edward Snowden frames the choices between Liberty and Security confronting Americans today as dire as Ben Franklin did in 1755.

NSA-issues TV News Quote Library

Our experimental library presents more than 1,100 chronologically ordered television citations drawn from the Internet Archive’s television news research library. TV quotes can be browsed by rolling over clip thumbnails, queried via transcripts and sorted for specific speakers. Citations, context, source broadcasters, and options to share, quote or borrow can be explored by following links on each thumbnail.

Thanks to the exceptional curatorial efforts of Robin Chin, a media researcher for the Internet Archive, you can use this library to reflect upon one of the great issues of our times.