The PATRIOT Act: Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

One beautiful morning in September 2001 many people went about their day like they have before. Some off to work, or traveling for business, or to visit family, and in a blink of an eye our lives in America changed forever. We were attacked, on our own soil, not once, but four times. That fourth plane didn’t make it to its destination, thanks to the brave souls aboard that sacrificed their lives to save others. On that fateful day 2,753(NYmag) families would never be the same, as well as the rest of us that watch in disbelief. The attacks on September 11th 2001 led to something called the Patriot Act. In the days after 9/11 Congress hurried to pass a bill to give law-enforcement agencies the power to fight domestic terrorism. On October 26, President George W. Bush signed three hundred page USA Patriot Act into law (Crf.org). The USA Patriot Act of 2001 was created to prevent and catch terrorist in the United States and around the world. The contents of it has been one of great controversy in the rights of our privacy and the violation of our constitutional rights. Can we give up too much freedom to keep us safe? Where do we draw the line to keep our Country safe?

On September 11, 2001 the United States was attacked by a terrorist group on our own soil. On October 26, 2011 the US Government signed into law the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (USA Patriot Act). Only one and a half months after we were attacked physically by a terrorist group, our government decided that we would be better off with a lot less freedom in order to better protect America from terrorist attacks in the future. Although this seemed like an obvious need in 2001, now almost ten years later there is little evidence supporting a need for such an Act. The bottom line is that the Patriot Act allows the US

We use technology every day, all day, for pretty much everything we do. Any information about ourselves, messages we send, or phone calls we make, it all takes place on our phones. However, they are also the biggest risk to our personal security as they are very vulnerable. They are not just vulnerable to scammers and hackers but also to our own government. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the president at the time, George Bush, responded by passing an act. This act is known as the Patriot Act. It allows the government unlimited access to phone records, emails, and text messages without a warrant through National Security Letters and Sneak and Peak Searches. Why do they do this, why was this act passed, they claim it’s for our safety. Both can be obtained and carried out without a judge’s approval, without a warrant, and without the knowledge of the person who is being searched. The Fourth Amendment is the right of the citizens to legal and just searches, with a warrant, with probable cause. These are not required under the Patriot Act to search through call histories and messages. The Patriot Act clearly infringes on the Fourth Amendment and the rights of the everyday citizen and does not accomplish its original goal of stopping terrorism.

The Patriot Act of 2001 has in many ways changed the way that acts of terrorism and other crimes related to terrorism are handled within the Federal system. The Patriot Act in many ways unites under one law code a few different important clauses relating to tools available to federal law enforcement and also to the new more pressed penalties for terrorist acts. The entire act within itself provides law enforcement a new set of measures and procedures to combating terrorist on the financial field as well as the domestic home front. The most basic of tools that many law enforcement agencies have took advantage of were with the passing of the Patriot Act of 2001 becoming newly available to that of federal investigatory

The Patriot Act was signed into law on October 26, 2001 by President George W. Bush. The act expanded the surveillance capability of both domestic law enforcement and international intelligence agencies. When this law was passed it was under the assumption “to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes” (The USA Patriot). The Patriot Act has given the government the power to spy on the average American through monitoring phone records and calls, gaining banking and credit information, and even track a person’s internet activity. This is an unbelievable amount of power intelligence agencies wield all under the umbrella of national security. This power has gone too far, is unjustified, unconstitutional, and infringes on the privacy of the

American citizens favor their civil liberties granted by the law and the Constitution. Civil liberties are freedoms of a citizen granted by the U.S. Constitution without arbitrary government abridgement. They are important because those freedoms protect the people from an oppressive government and other oppressive citizens. These rights include the freedom of assembly, petition, press, religion, speech and civil rights. The rights separate the United States from a tyrannical government. The preservation of civil rights is a keystone of democracy. This allows the United States to be unique from other nations throughout the test of time. Americans also take pride in their freedoms as the Founding Fathers would have wanted them to. The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 or also known as the Patriot Act, however, is hampering on American freedoms, pride and the Bill of Rights. The Act was passed right after the September 11 terror attacks as a way to prevent further terrorist attacks in the United States. Although security is a necessary factor in an American’s life, security should not be prioritized over personal freedom. The Patriot Act should be amended because part of the act is unconstitutional, is an attack on Americans’ civil liberties and supports the vilification of Muslim Americans.

Often our nation sees as a symbol of freedom to the world; however, since the events of 9/11 the U.S congress signed into law the U.S Patriot Act. This legislation extends the power of the government by strengthening its oversight authority over the nation, claiming protection of the national security against potential foreign threats. As an American citizen, I agree with some of the terms and measures adopted under the Patriot Act in which the government needs to intercept, obstruct, and monitor terrorism actions keeping us safe from potential attacks without violating any of our civil rights. However, the act fails to secure American liberties, facilitating and encourages the government to become authoritarian with the pretext idea of national security purpose, exposing millions of Americans lives to serious and potential abuses of corruptions, fraud and discrimination by taking away our freedoms and liberty rights guarantee by the U.S Constitution, assuming that giving politicians authoritarian powers will make America a safer place to live. On the Other hand as a Law abiding citizen I’m not willing to sacrifice and been taking away my constitutional rights in exchange for national security purpose, because if we continue like that, we would be further away from an ideal democracy society, losing confidence and support to our government system that eliminates the American ideal of check and balance power for their own ends.

The attacks on the United States of America on September 11th, 2001 fundamentally changed the way the government and its citizens viewed freedom and liberty. With the subsequent enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act, security became the government’s top priority. (The USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.) Congress, eager to put a law on the books to prevent another attack, fast tracked the bill through both houses in six weeks. It passed by a near unanimous vote, with the majority of dissent coming from Democrats. A highly contentious and debated law, the USA PATRIOT Act infringes on Natural Law and the American citizen’s Civil Liberties. Also it violates the spirit and letter of the United States Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights. Many amendments in the Constitution are at a direct contrast with the law’s many broadly worded sections, specifically the First Amendment’s right to free speech and freedom of assembly, and the Fourth Amendment’s guard against unwarranted and illegal search and seizure.

A. Thesis: The Patriot Act is violating American’s right to privacy. Mainly, the right to hold a private phone conversation.

The USA PATRIOT Act was a piece of legislation that was signed into law to address the realities of modern terrorism. The new breed of terrorism was sophisticated and used new technologies that, according to the President, “were not available at the time that the existing laws were written”, he said in his speech during the bill signing press event on October 26. 2001; a fair argument. He said “The bill before me takes account of the new realities and dangers posed by modern terrorists” and the Patriot Act was “an essential step in defeating terrorism while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans”. But how does the Patriot Act do that? How does it protect the constitutional rights of Americans? How does it help defeat

Human knowledge is one of the man impact of the community, once they find that they are looking into what they do and they are considered suspects every terrorist attack they will soon begin to become paranoid. though this paranoia isn't due to the fact that they may have done something wrong, but that they didn't do a thing and the FBI might make the criminals for making one too many calls or for having different medical involvement. Plenty of citizens would refuse to be under that kind of surveillance, due to the about if observation the patriot act puts on people they would no longer feel comfortable in the way they are living. In source 2, the author claims "The NSA and FBI use the Patriot Act to collect the phone records of millions of people who have never even been suspected or accused of a crime" (source 2), this is not only portraying that they have records of what people are doing and not just that they hardly ever even find the actual people that are guilty of terrorism attacks, invading people's lives is much greater than being just illegal it is harassment toward the community as a

September 11, 2001 was one of the worst days in U.S. history. Many Muslim men hijacked planes and crashed them into the world trade center buildings, and the pentagon killing almost 3,000 innocent people. After this incident, every Muslim was seen as a terrorist so the U.S government enacted the patriot act, which gave more power to the federal law-enforcement and intelligence gathering in suspected terrorist crimes. The patriot act gives the government power to do whatever they want for “national security” and take away the civilians civil rights. The government can tap into cell phones and listen in on conversations or even watch what people are searching on the internet. Since the passing of the patriot act racial profiling has grown in the past years especially towards Muslims. The patriot act may have seemed like a good idea at the time but in reality it just gives the government a way to strip citizens of their rights, is unconstitutional, and it needs to be removed.

Everyone is familiar with the atrocity that occurred in New York on September 11, 2001. The hijacked planes, the towers crashing down, killing hundreds of civilians. Truth is, the attack left everyone in the county and around the world in an extreme state of shock. It was America after all, things like that were not supposed to happen within this country’s borders. Things like that only occurred in places thousands of miles away, places with unstable governments like Syria, and Iran. Fueled by extreme anger, and fear of another attack, many citizens demanded that their government improve its protection over its citizens. In response, the government presented the Patriot Act, a 342 page bill that gave federal officials more power to track and intercept communications, both for law enforcement and foreign intelligence gathering purposes. In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked information to the public that the government was spying and collecting hundreds of information from millions of Americans without the use of any warrants. This information was being shared throughout different departments such as the CIA, FBI and NSA. More than a decade has gone by and terrorism continues to be a threat to our society, Now everyone must ask themselves, to what extent should citizens allow its own government to increase its own power to protect them from terrorism? How many liberties are they willing to give up for for such protection?

It is better to have civil liberties and a right to privacy than for the government to do whatever they deem necessary to prevent another terrorist attack. First off, the legality of the Patriot act is questionable, several articles had tried to nullify preexisting laws. Before law enforcement can fully begin investigating people or places, they must acquire a search warrant. This law is from Amendment 4 in the Bill of Rights and helps protect citizens from any unjustified searches; however, acquiring a search warrant takes time and is the reason why the Patriot Act tries to get away with working around it. An instance of this occurred in 2002, when George Bush authorized the NSA to monitor phone calls and e-mails of thousands of Americans,

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, once said “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” In America’s society today, some are willing to sacrifice their civil liberties in order to gain protection and security over some potential threat. Especially after the events of September 11th and several attempted bombings in U.S. cities. This sacrifice of individual freedoms such as the freedom of speech, expression, the right to information, to new technologies, and so forth, for additional protection is more of a loss than a gain. Citizens of the United States deserve equal liberty and safety overall, as someone should not have to give up