Mass Surveillance Essay

The affair began on June 17, 1972, when the local police arrested five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex. The police found on the burglars a slush fund used by the committee for the re-election of the President Richard Nixon and listening devices. They look secrets agents more than burglars. As Washington is a federal district, the affair was charged to the F. B. I. Within hours after that, the F. B. I discovered a name of a C. I. A officer in the address book of one of the burglars. The officer was a member of a secret operative team charged by the President to protect confidential documents inside the white house. Although the burglary seemed to be an operation led by former employees of the White House in order to spy on Democratic Party elections plans, the FBI investigation was not going away. The case was covered by the head of F. B. I Patrick Gray. Who was shortly before appointed by the President in place of J. Edgar Hoover (dead in May, 1972). The President had chosen his friend instead of William Mark Felt, the Bureau’s Associate Director, the second-ranking post in the F. B. I after Hoover. At first, the case made a very little noise and seemed to be covered up. Nixon reelected for another four years in November 1972. He defeated McGovern, the democratic leader, with over 60 percent of the popular vote. Until end of 1972, when the two Washington Post journalists: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed the affair in public. They had been informed by an F. B. I whistleblower (he revealed himself in 2005 and he was William Mark Felt, the number two in the F. B. I at that moment). The affair was covered by many other media like Time Magazine, and The New York Times and they accused the President and his administration. Who also accused the media of making wild accusations, putting too much emphasis on this story. Months later, the affair had a dramatic consequents and political repercussions, an investigation conducted by the Senate with democratic majority. It was revealed that President Nixon had a tape-recording system in his office and he had recorded many conversations. Recordings from these tapes implicated the president revealing that he had known about the affair and had attempted to cover up. After a protracted round of bitter court battles, the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes to government investigators, he ultimately handed over. Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and a strong possibility of a conviction in the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a pardon to him. The Watergate scandal resulted in 69 government officials being charged and 48 being found guilty like vice president, F. B. I head, C. I. A officers, and all members of president’s administration.