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Patriot Act Of 2002 Essay

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This paper will discuss how to balance out civil liberties and security in intelligence activities; mainly surrounding the topic of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2002. With this topic and its perceived downfalls, identifying how to make both sides work efficiently will be discussed.

Discussion
When asked the question of “how can the United States balance civil liberties and security in intelligence activities?” the thought of the USA PATRIOT Act comes into mind; for two reasons. The first one is it caused a enormous uproar in the community after it was enacted based upon the fact it was perceived to infringe on civil liberties. Secondly is it requires intelligence operations not privy to the community in how the information is collected and who is being monitored (unknowingly). Adam Liptak had “concerns of the attitudes of those who had the power to act on the Act, actions of the intelligence agencies and military forces; but his main focus is on the federal government. Abusing the rights of surveillance on religious and political groups, denial of rights to immigrants, arrests of people loosely …show more content…

With the concept of defense in depth, all levels of society should be involved when it comes to homeland security, as in the phrase of “if you see something, say something”. Assuming society has the same goals as one another in what they believe is fighting for their own security; this idea would be an easy one. However, White mentions this ideal “alters the balance by emphasizing state power, laws, military behavior, police power, information gathering, and other aspects of civil existence are altered when an entire society engages in conflict” (White, 2014,

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