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Conspiracy Pros And Cons

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Recommended: Introduction to the USA PATRIOT Act

In an age of what appears to be increasing insecurity, Americans have to make a choice between being secure and maintaining civil liberties or is it up to the government to decide. Privacy today faces growing threats from a growing surveillance apparatus that is often justified in the name of the national security. Security is privileged over values such as civil liberties after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Because of this horrendous event the national government, began its surveillance attack in hoping to stop another terrorist attack from happening. The government has been trying to rebuild the security that was lost (“Money”). Their plan for doing this involves increasing the surveillance, listening to phone calls, and monitoring …show more content…

The Act was used to improve our counter-terrorism efforts (“USA Patriot Web”). According to the U.S Department of Justice, “since its passage following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act has played a key part in a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from deadly plans of terrorists dedicated to destroying America and our way of life.” Since the government believed that the Patriot Act was the answer to peace, they wanted to develop it but ended up twisting it to their advantage. The government started to abuse the power of the Patriot Act, and even the idea of the Patriot Act and then it began falling apart since “part of the statute violates the First Amendment and the Separation of powers doctrine” (“Top Ten”). With the government holding the control over the law, they are able to create their own version of what the Patriot Act is such as “eliminating the statutes of limitations for certain terrorism crimes and lengthens them for other terrorist crimes” (“USA Patriot Web”). This degree started the downfall of the nation in terms of peace. No one person seems to be safe from the …show more content…

Since then people have been trying to rebuild their lives and continue on. America is getting there and will not fall because of the attack. According to Professor Dhruba Bora, a criminal justice professor at Marshall University, America will not be phased by such a little thing as a terrorist attack because of all the governments attacks into preventing another one. The government attacks that Professor Bora mentioned are surveillance, cell phone tapping, and the twisting of the Patriot Act. It is because the government understands that all lives are precious that they are willing to go to such lengths in order to protect its people, but all the government is doing to fix the nation is adding more and more surveillance and starting to treat the people of the nation as if they were nothing but slaves to the government (Goldman).The governments reason for this is to protect the people, and the people are starting to accept it. According to a new poll done by The Atlantic, the support for surveillance is increasing (Davis). Privacy may be lost and people may feel uncomfortable but it the government’s plan for protection works then the people should be willing to put up with the discomfort in order to protect the nation. According to Deena Zaru, a writer for CNN, states that “people should know that there is a way to stay on the grid and maintain a certain level of control over the type of information

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1203 Words | 5 Pages

During peacetime, civil liberties expanded. Still, criticisms on the patriot act should lead to amendments. The future of the Act will likely involve amendments to limit the scope and powers of law enforcers. The goal of such amendments will be to protect personal freedoms and individual rights. One of the greatest things I can take away from the patriot act is that the government's success in preventing another catastrophic attack on the American homeland since September 11, 2001, would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, without the USA Patriot Act.

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403 Words | 2 Pages

The Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act or better known as the Patriot Act was sign by President Bush on October 26, 2001 because of the terroristic attack on September 11. Congress felt that the Patriot Act was a way to strengthen security. The Patriot Act was created and passed so quickly, no one really wondered what are the pros and cons of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act was meant to increase security for the United States.

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CONCLUSION The USA Patriot Act violates the Unites States Constitution. The Patriot Act's purpose is to protect Americans from foreign threats and domestic terrorist attacks, however, the cons of this Act far outweigh the pros. It is important to protect Americans, but the illusion of homeland safety is not worth relinquishing civil rights for.

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2274 Words | 10 Pages

We are not facing an issue of civil rights. We do not have a 21st century Martin Luther King who is trying to deliver a people from a constitutional injustice. Instead, surveillance is a symptom rather than a cause of the constitutional crisis. Perhaps with greater understanding of constitutional history and the constitutional effects of war, commentators would have seen this issue.[6] How does America remains secure in the world where such threats exist? Can it do this without a constitutional crisis each time the threat emerges?

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The Patriot Act (the full name is the USA Patriot Act, or "Uniting and Strengthening America Act by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001") was signed on October 26 by the former U.S. President George W. Bush in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11. The main purposes are to improve the level of domestic security and to strengthen the powers of law-enforcement agencies in terms of identifying and eliminating terrorists. The US government and its supporters believe that it is one of the most useful tools to investigate and arrest terrorists within and outside the borders of the country. However, critics argue about Acts “overpower” which treats the civilians in non-democratic way and

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1025 Words | 5 Pages

Why did a government surveillance official lie to America? In March 2015, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper declared the National Security Agency (NSA) does not “collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans” (Engler). Then Edward Snowden revealed that truthfully, plenty of data was being collected and surveyed by the government through the bulk collection of private phone information. James Clapper later stated he “misunderstood the question” (Engler). Not only does this spark rage, but also reveals that the government has been using its resources to data mine at the ignorance of citizens, where a computer algorithm tries to find potential threats in hopes of stopping terrorism.

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The terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001, was more devastating to the United States than Pearl Harbor. More lives were lost when the towers fell then when the Japanese attacked United States in Hawaii. The difference between the attacks was 9/11 was against civilians, not the military. No one could’ve imagined anything good or productive coming out of these terrorist attacks. The shear lost of life and destruction staggered the mind.

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Looking back on the results of these types of programs, many wonder if the government has truly had success with these programs The intelligence programs centered around the NSA have grown at such a drastic rate that issues have risen around the legal circumstances of spying, the effectiveness of the program, and the reach of spying inside the country and the rest of the world. One of the biggest arguments is whether all of this is truly legal. The NSA and Barack Obama have both openly admitted to the collection of nationwide phone call and email data that is analyzed for our safety. Although this is done with the best intentions, critics will say that this is too far, as well as unconstitutional. These acts carried out by the government are “violations of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that ‘the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches

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The US has such an extravagant and large military budget so there must be better ways to ensure the safety of the US without assuming the worst of its own citizens.” People want security for the American citizens. They want to avoid terrorist attacks and other crimes that occur in our own nation. The difference in opinion comes when people are asked whether they are willing to sacrifice their own privacy to help ensure that security of the

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1525 Words | 7 Pages

NSA Surveillance "I can 't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they 're secretly building" (Edward Snowden). The NSA began monitoring and collecting sensitive and personal information from Americans such as their emails, phone calls, photos and other private material. Massive surveillance began in 2001 after the terrorist attack in New York and since then there has been a big peak in government watching. It 's unnecessary for the NSA to monitor American’s private conversations as well as other sensitive data because people should be able to have a sense of privacy in personal communication with others. Government watching is something that the government shouldn’t do because although there are bad people in this world it is irrelevant for them to watch everyone because not everyone is bad and many people disfavors this decision.

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population about this policy are controversial and have been hot topics in the news ever since. Lastly, the fallout after 9/11 associating with the USA PATRIOT Act has brought Americans to become suspicious of their own government. They were completely unaware of the FBI’s database meant to spy on them and gather exceptionally personal information. The amount of focus people have placed upon their leaders has made the country more lawful and

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1358 Words | 6 Pages

In this paper, I argue against Government Surveillance. Although a society full of cameras could help solve some crimes, it is also true that the Constitution, through the fourth amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. Despite the fact that this is not a guarantee against all searches and seizures, only those that are deemed unreasonable under the law should be monitored. In addition, increasing political surveillance with the excuse of protection against war or enemies only fuels the fact that innocent people’s lives are being monitored. Finally, the information collected by the mass internet surveillance programs could be used for other harmful purposes since hackers could gain access to the databases and sell the information to other companies or terrorist groups.

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413 Words | 2 Pages

This has changed the relationship between the intelligence and the law especially since the terrorist attack 9/11. As a result, our country has dealt with the profound experiences in responses to any terrorism on civil-liberties. Until, surprisingly when contractor Edward Snowden from the NSA, had whistleblower that the American people civil liberty was been infringed upon. This is where the government tragic failure begins, and it created mounting concerns. As you listen and watch, one has learned that the national security grounds the government started to illegally spying on citizens’ transaction and communication.

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1563 Words | 7 Pages

In the United States, the right to privacy is understood by Americans as one of the fundamental rights of all people. In the age of satellite surveillance, video cameras, position tracking, communication monitoring, and electronic surveillance, whether an individual can truly experience privacy is questionable. Surveillance in public places such as stores, schools, and workplaces has become commonplace. Most employees have become accustomed to being monitored daily at the workplace. It is understood that anything they say or do is recorded and any inappropriate conduct could result in their termination for the job.

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703 Words | 3 Pages

Common saying goes, “Everything comes with a price. You can never gain something if you don’t sacrifice something of equal value.” While this might not apply to all situations, it certainly describes the debate of National Security vs. Individual Privacy. To increase and establish safety and security for the citizens, erosion of individual privacy must occur; the real problem is how far the government should go to ensure that terrorist threats are minimized. To address this growing debate, President Obama said, “It’s important to understand that you can’t have 100 percent security and then have 100 percent privacy... we’re going to have to make some choices as a society”.

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