1. The first paragraph of a news article should answer the questions who, what, where and when (although the where and when of this article are in paragraph 2) List the who, what, where and when of this news item. (NOTE: The remainder of a news article provides details on the why and/or how.)

2. How does the U.S. Marshals Service program work? Be specific.

3. How often do the surveillance flights occur?

4. Why is the dirtbox program a more effective way for the government to access suspects’ cell phone locations than working with phone companies?

5. What is unknown and concerning about this program? (see paragraph 13-16)

6. What concerns do some within the U.S. Marshals Service have about the “dirtbox” surveillance program?

7. a) Why do you think all of the people quoted in this article chose to be anonymous sources?
b) What effect do you think this report will have on the Marshal’s surveillance program to capture criminals and/or terrorists? Negative effect, positive effect, no effect? Explain your answer.

8. Consider the following:

Christopher Soghoian of the ACLU said: “Maybe it’s worth violating privacy of hundreds of people to catch a suspect, but is it worth thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of peoples’ privacy?”

Similar devices are used by U.S. military and intelligence officials operating in other countries, including in war zones, where they are sometimes used to locate terrorist suspects, according to people familiar with the work. In the U.S., these people said, the technology has been effective in catching suspected drug dealers and killers. They wouldn’t say which suspects were caught through this method.

a) What do you think? Is the potential capture of high level criminals worth the loss of our privacy? Explain your answer.
b) Should the government to use this technology in other countries (war zones) to locate terrorists?
c) Would the loss of privacy be worth it if the government could use this technology to capture terrorists in the U.S. before they staged attacks?
d) Should the government continue to use this technology to capture criminals or terrorists, or both or neither? Explain your answer.
e) Ask a parent the same questions.