The USA Patriot Act, also known as "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" was a rushed act passed 45 days after the devastating terrorist attack on the twin towers September 11th, 2001. It was composed with the intention of finding and prosecuting international terrorists on American soil, but consequently violated the constitution. In addition, the Patriot act allows surveillance on all emails, internet, and cell phones to try and catch terrorists. Regardless, the act ended up having more power than primarily planned as stated in the CNN debate on the patriot act. America was founded on the principle of individual liberties and the pursuit of happiness in the context
NSA SPYING PROGRAMMES The United States of America has been ranked the best country with a strong security and defense capability and currently still holds the position. Over the years from independence, the U.S.A continue to increase in strengthen and power to self-defend and ability to intercept major issues around the world. From the World War II and other subsequence wars that followed, the whole world can testify to the superiority of the American Military and their efficiency in the field. This doesn’t just stop there; USA spends almost 20% of their budget on the defense and security of the nation.
The Patriot Act will be one of the most controversial pieces of legislation ever to be passed by the United States’ government. People in our society nowadays give the ultimatum “pro security, or anti-freedom?” That is not the Patriot Acct in a nutshell; it is far from that statement. There are more cons than there are pros, but the pros that have come out of the passage of the Patriot Act may have saved millions of American and international lives from the destruction of terrorist. That being said the lives that were saved did come at a price of the American citizens’ privacy and broke numerous amendments from the Bill of Rights.
The Patriot Act is one of today’s most controversial laws. The law’s official name is the USA PATRIOT Act, which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. The law was passed in 2001 after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The act greatly increased the power of the government in preventing terrorism, but it also increased the amount of surveillance that the government performs on citizens.
The moment that the Twin Towers fell in New York, America became destined for change. In the wake of these attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was quickly passed through congress, and signed by then-president, George W. Bush. The act itself gives the FBI and other government agencies the ability to do and use certain methods, many of which are already used by other law enforcement organizations, to help prevent future terrorist attacks. Since then, this piece of legislation has been the center of much debate and controversy. But, there is ample reason to believe that the Patriot Act is needed and effective.
Now in today’s standards, you only have freedom of semi-privacy that the Patriot Act believes is non-threatening. By them monitoring your texts, emails, history along with things you look for in search engines you never truly free to say anything or look up anything you want. Also what followed after this act were the random abductions of people. They take the “random,” person and ship them to another country to loophole their laws of not permitting torturing someone in this country. Instead they hire other countries to do their dirty work.
The Patriot Act is unsafe, unconstitutional and should be banned from the United States of America. According to source, three president Bush created the Patriot Act in 2001. He signed off on the act after the tragedy of nine eleven to try and monitor terrorists in the United States. Although the act was created to try and keep the country safe, it also has caused several set backs. There are sources that oppose and support the Patriot Act; moreover, the act violates the individual privacy of citizens, can falsely charge innocent people, but can stop terrorism.
NSA hides the fact that they are monitoring on US citizens without the warrant as they find some connection between the person monitored and some illegal activity to justify their monitoring. At first, after the 9/11, President George W. Bush started a program of mass monitoring of US communication. He had started it without FISA Court’s knowledge and when the population find out about this Congress had to create and enact the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 and inside was the crucial Section 702 that, by law, validates mass monitoring over the last 7 years. These communication monitoring systems rely on these two statutes: FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (Section 702) and Patriot Act (Section 215).
However, this issue is more complicated than just black or white. The Surveillance Law was founded by the George W. Bush Administration and was continued throughout Barack Obama’s presidency. The law allows a special legal regime for investigating matters related to “foreign intelligenceâ€. The renewal of the Surveillance law bill was just approved by the Senate for another six years (Savage). This allows emails, texts, and phone calls to be collected by the government without a warrant. Therefore, with Congress’s new approval, the NSA’s actions are now legal.
Proof that NSA Spying is Wrong and How to Stop It Right now, all over the US people are going about their daily lives unaware that someone could be watching their every move, and listening in on every private conversation. The next few paragraphs will attempt to prove that NSA spying is not only wrong but is also illegal. People who have worked for the NSA such as William Binney, Edward Snowden, and many others have come forward and exposed the secrets of NSA spying on American citizens (Poitras, Laura). Through the Quantum Program, the NSA is currently able to use major internet companies to track where a person goes and who they talk to (Chapman, Steve).
And we all know the public’s fear of the NSA, yet both business and the NSA’s data collection method is incorporated to provide, or improve the American’s way of life; it be convenience in shopping, alerting customers of traffic on GPS, or preventing a terrorist
NEXT STEPS Has surveillance reform gone far enough? Hardly. Obama has taken the first steps, but the government should take six more to enhance public confidence in surveillance programs. First, the intelligence community should do even more to increase transparency. IC on the Record is a good start, but it is mostly reactive, providing context to programs that Snowden had already leaked.
The recent growth in surveillance is not about the technology, but the physical surveillance tactics our government has adopted. Police departments have become involved in the argument of unethical government surveillance because they are overseen by the government and acts as a form of government surveillance. Police department and their tactics are a primary and most hands on form of surveillance used in the U.S. Today, stop and frisk is the face of police misconduct. This tactic requires officers to have reasonable suspicion to pat down a suspect's outer clothing, or stop and frisk without a warrant. The Newark Police Department (PD) of Newark, New Jersey has experienced several issues with their stop and frisk tactics over the years.
Everything you do is being watched thanks to NSA. Americans privacy is being revoked because of new technology. From “cookies” tracking your computer to drones following you on the street. Technology is becoming an immense part of our everyday life. We tend to forget how powerful technology can be.
People claim that nowadays they are living in surveillance society because Big Brother in twenty first century is keeping a close eye on people’s daily life. If so what is the meaning of Big Brother? The word Big Brother first introduced in George Orwell’s book named 1984. He said that “Big Brother is Watching You. ”(George Orwell, published year).
