Patriotic act
Inception of the patriotic act
The patriotic act was passed shortly after the terrorist attack, which was on September 11th 2001 by the congress. During the attack, four planes were hijacked, where two of the planes were directed to the centre towers of the world trade while the third plane was directed to Washington’s pentagon. The remaining plane was targeted for Washington but crashed before the arrival. The attackers crashed the 110 story tower and one wing of the pentagon was damaged totally. There were many deaths of the American. The whole America was in fear, and dint know whether there were more attacks prepared for them in later days. Since this attack, many people including immigrants and Arabs were taken into detention and were accused of breaking the basic constitutional rights. Many people were thrown into custody and were not charged with any crimes. They were not even permitted to call their lawyers. When lawyers talked with their clients, they were surveyed, and if they defended them, they were prosecuted. This obliterated the defense of the privilege of lawyer client.
The congress after this attack was presented with changes they were supposed to make to the laws to combat terrorism with some actions that had been contrasted by the members. Having been put fear by the attack, the senate passed the patriotic act of USA. This act was meant to strengthen and unite America through tools that would combat terrorism. The passed statement had altered more than earlier 15 laws and made a total of 342 pages. This was soon signed by the then president Bush into law saying that the attack was the most threat America had experienced. Bush said that the laws respected and upheld the constitution’s civil liberties. In the act, domestic act is any activity in the United State of America that endangers the lives of people. The activities could intimidate the population of the civilian, intimidate and influence the government policies or mass destroy, assassinate or kidnap to affect the government conduct (Mailman, 2002).
The goals of the act
The act is meant to prevent any potential terrorist attacks in America and protect the American’s citizens from terrorists’ deadly plans. Through such protections therefore, the lives and liberty of the people are preserved. Most of the changes in the act concern the reduction of restrictions by the agencies to search any kind of information from wherever, overseas aptitude can now gather in America easily and financial transactions are now easily regulated.
Purpose of the patriotic act
This act was set particularly to discourage and penalize acts of terrorism in the united states of America, including the whole world by enhancing investigator tools meant for enforcement of law. In the act 15 statutes are amended and it contains ten articles. The act’s initial act is “uniting, and strengthening America by providing appropriate tool required to intercept and obstruct terrorism” this is from the words “USA PATRIOT”. Other purposes of the act are to strength the already existing measures in America to detect, prevent and arraign laundering of global money and using it to aid the terrorists. It also scrutinized overseas jurisdictions, financial institutions and accounts that seem susceptible to abuse by criminals. It requires that all the monetary institutions report any kind of laundering of the money. To protect corrupt foreign financial officials from enhancing personal financial gains but instead have returned stolen assets to the owners in the countries from which they were stolen (Anna, 2004).
Is patriotic act subject to abuse?
It is true that the patriotic act is subject to abuse in its applications. It avoids due process and dominates some civil liberties to combat terrorism internationally. Other than its original purpose that was meant at the beginning, enforcement by the federal law uses it as a means against non terrorism too. The US justice department, for example, has admitted using the law to investigate survey and seize several dollars in the suspected crime related properties from the Americans. This usage is against the initial’s purpose of the act by the congress. The authority of the act as been swept to crimes related to financing, drugs, smugglers and kidnappings.
This is a stealth move that the government has employed in combating other crimes. Instead of this abuse, it should define other laws that combat the financial and other social crimes and implement. The act has permitted the law enforcement to make discoveries of people’s secrets that do not concern terrorism. With such ease on the use of surveillance tools the act overdoes it role of foreign intelligence investigation and affects privacy rights and personal liberties. Through the expansion of the government surveillance, the act has been abused thereby curtailing liberties of the people. The privacy of the Americans has been infringed due to the abuse of this act by the agencies that use it as a tool. The act is wrongly used to prosecute other crimes defined by other laws.
An example of an abuse of this act is found where an attorney in Portland called Brandon was arrested in relation with the Madrid bombings and held for some time as a material witness and later released after FBI confirmed that there was a mistake. Later, the government confirmed that there had been the use of secret surveillance in his family from the court for intelligent purposes. This search is an abuse to the act. The act was misused as a searching tool for evidence other than as a tool for intelligent search. This abuse of the act results from the extensive mandates given to the FBIs on the use of the act. They therefore end up misusing their powers. This is also seen in their issuance of NSLs leading to an increase in the collection of private information from the Americans (Abramson, 2005).
Intimidations to civil rights by patriotic act
The patriotic act has posed such a big threat to the liberty of the citizens. As workers in America, there is no room to resist abuse and other antisocial conducts that comes along the misuse of the act. Those who protest against the use of the act are seen as traitors by some of the big people in America such as attorney general John Ashcroft’s. The act has moved from its original purpose of preventing against terrorism to being used in cases that do not involve terrorism. The tool is openly used against the citizens of America and foreign citizens in America. To support this, one of the figures in the government said that “If a tool that is legal and constitutionally valid is good enough to use against organized crime or drug dealers, it ought to be good enough to be used against terrorism. Conversely, if it’s good enough to be used against terrorists, it ought to be used against other kinds of criminals” (Ryan, 2007).
Users of the act
Several agents use the act. These include the FBI, the CIA and homeland security among others
Success of patriot act in curbing terrorism
There are many parts of the act that do not relate directly to the terrorism prevention. From the act for example, the government can spy on those who are suspected of trespassing computer without any form of court order. In its efforts to curb the terrorists, the act allows for collection of DNA samples from the offenders who use violence. Wiretaps are also allowed for those who violate the compute and abuse the act.
As a sign of success, there is a dramatic increase in the penalties for breach of computer frauds and neglect act. The penalty has also been raised to show the degree of severity if one is found violating any of the mentioned regulations. There are many developments of programmes by the agencies that improve intelligence collection and their processing. The capability of addressing terrorist’s acts is increased as the agencies are now able to link with other safety agencies in restoring the peace of the citizens (Schoonmaker, Fuhrman, Almy and Cremar, 2003).
How long the act is likely to continue
It is not know how long the act is likely to continue. However there had been extensions of the act over time and this indicates its success. Other than the issue on its abuse, the act is gaining success and most probably it might continue being in operation as a toll to prevent terrorists in America. The bill differs on the number of years to extend the act and the oversight needed in it. There is a proposal by senate judiciary committee to continue the surveillance till 2013 (Anna, 2004).
Other uses of the act
.Other than preventing the Americans from terrorism, the act has found its usage in crimes that are not related to terrorism.
Conclusion
The patriotic act improves security for the citizens through cooperation and efficient information between agencies in all departments. Victims of the attack are funded. However the act has been criticized due to its interference with the privacy of the citizens. America is now protected and there is harmony in the government agencies.
References
Abramson, L. (2005). The Patriot Act: Alleged Abuses of the Law. Retrieved on 16th April, 2011 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4756403
Anna, H. (2004). “Debate around Patriot Act increases”. News (The Daily Pennsylvanian). Retrieved on 16th April, 2011 from http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2004/02/13/News/Debate.Around.Patriot.Act.Increases-2152367.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailypennsylvanian.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com.
Mailman, S.(2002).Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001: an analysis. CRC Press
Ryan, S. (2007). “Court Strikes Down 2 Key Patriot Act Provisions”. Surveillance, The Courts (Wired). Retrieved on 16th April, 2011 from http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/09/court-strikes-2.html.
Schoonmaker, M., Fuhrman, S., Almy, R. and Cremar, S. (2003). Is the Patriot Act Too Great a Threat to Our Civil Liberties? Retrieved on 16th April, 2010 from faculty.juniata.edu/rkm/social/patriot.ppt
