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The Pros And Cons Of The Patriot Act

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Critics of the PATRIOT Act claim that with too much power, comes corruption. The PATRIOT Act gave new powers to the United States Intelligence community in which is made up of 17 agencies. Some of the most notable are the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies. The Patriot Act enabled international and domestic surveillance of electronic communications; it also removed legal barriers that had blocked law enforcement, intelligence, and defense agencies from sharing information about potential terrorist threats and coordinating efforts to respond to them. Many critics of the PATRIOT Act raised concerns surrounding …show more content…

Many of these concerns were given credibility in 2013 when NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information showing that the National Security Agency was using the law to acquire the bulk collection of data related to millions of communications. “NSA cited Section 215 of the Patriot Act as justification for the program, which the agency said was aimed at helping to identify and track possible terrorism suspects. In addition, federal officials said that the special-purpose Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had approved the NSA's data-collection practices on multiple occasions. But in May 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York ruled that the program violated the Patriot Act in an opinion on a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The PATRIOT Extension Act expired as scheduled at the start of June 2015 after the Senate was unable to agree on a proposed extension.” As Mr. Cusick stated, what Edward Snowden failed to disclose or fail to see was the whole picture. He was not privileged to see how some aspects of information fit with others. With or without this understanding, Snowden painted a grim picture of NSA’s practices regarding the privacy millions of citizens. By doing so, he severely damaged the nations intelligence gathering capability and put the lives of many at

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This act increased the federal powers imposed on the citizens in order to help their efforts towards investigating terrorists. These powers included telephone taps, internet taps, voice mail, grand jury information, immigration, money laundering, and crime. While these powers made it easier for the government to track down possible suspects of terrorism, it interfered with the people’s right to privacy. All the provisions under the Patriot Act can be used on the citizens with the approval of a court order. Furthermore, it interfered with the Fourth Amendment.

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615 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction Signed into law on 26 October 2001, the US Patriot Act was meant to strengthen security controls and provide Americans with an opportunity to act in the defense of their freedom. Caused by the September 11 terrorist attacks, this rule was intended to help Americans protect themselves from future similar strikes. However, since its enactment 16 years ago, this legislation has provided a veil with which impunity and civil rights violators can hide behind as they perpetrate crime in the name of national security. The act augmented safety and intelligence agencies' powers to acquire confidential information.

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953 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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216 Words | 1 Pages

The Patriot act when passed it was overlooked, rushed and it did hinder our rights and privacy, however at that time who was thinking about their right and privacy when such an act had just happened. I was in high school when the Patriot Act went into law and all I cared was to make sure that the people that planned the attack get what they deserved for killing so many Americans. Maybe, they waited for the time that the American people were vulnerable to pass the Patriot Act, because they knew it wasn’t going to get everyone’s attention. Now, that a lot of people know how the Patriot Act works and how it has been used, we the American people want it gone or to have a better supervision so that individuals with malicious intent wont misuse it

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406 Words | 2 Pages

After September 11th, the government introduced the Patriot Act that changed the way the government surveillance Americans. The point of the Patriot Act is was to track activity of terrorist. As an American citizen, I agree that the Patriot Act is necessary to protect American citizens from terrorism, but it also can turn everyday Americans to a suspect because of speculations. Information sharing is a pro because it enhances information sharing within the FBI, and with the intelligence community at large.  This can also be looked at as a con because  sharing can create large databases of people who are not threats.

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

Edward Snowden sparked huge sensational news stories and debates over the groundbreaking revelation of the massive surveillance program that was authorized by Congress and the president of the United States of America. It was formally presented as the USA PATRIOT Act by Congress and signed into law by George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The PATRIOT Act was approved by a large bipartisan majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The PATRIOT Act soon went under the radar as the US went into war in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, Edward Snowden forced up the issue of civil liberties and national security once again when he released documents specifically pertaining to the National Security Agency out to The Guardian.

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2274 Words | 10 Pages

The recent revelations about the NSA surveillance programme have cause concern and outrage by citizens and politicians across the world. What has been missing, though, is any extended discussion of why the government wants the surveillance and on what basis is it authorised. For many commentators surveillance is wrong and it cannot be justified. Some commentators have argued that surveillance is intrinsic to the nature of government and its ability to deliver the public good.[1] Few, though have looked at the surveillance within a wider context to understand how it developed. A notable exception is the work by Steven Aftergood.

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393 Words | 2 Pages

Over the years following 9/11, facts about the secret surveillance program started to surface. As an investigation started being conducted, it was found that the program was not just listening in on calls and emails from abroad by quite of bit of activity monitoring was taking place within the United States causing a lot of controversy in the fact that people did not like the idea that their private information was being invaded by the NSA on authority of the president. Furthermore, there was a rise in concern for the Fourth Amendment rights against search and seizure violations of having individual’s emails taken and used against them without warrants. The Bush Administration worked with Congress immediately following the 9/11 attacks to pass and sign into law the USA Patriot Act that was “an overnight revision of the nation 's surveillance laws that vastly expanded the government 's authority to spy on its own citizens, while simultaneously reducing checks and balances on those powers like judicial oversight, public accountability, and the ability to challenge government searches in court” (ACLU,

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971 Words | 4 Pages

The USA Patriot Act allowed the government to watch people through the internet, their phone conversations, and via satellites. The reason for this act was to make sure the government had a form of surveillance so there wouldn’t be another terrorist attack. President Bush was very excited to have this act passed because he thought that it would help intelligence operations and anti-criminal operations the chance to trade information to catch any possible terrorists. Nick Anderson, a cartoonist for Washington Post, believed that the government was throwing out the Constitutional ways to make this act a new law. Mary Jo White, a former U.S. Attorney from the southern district of New York, believed that this act was a good one to have but thought that if the right to privacy was taken away it would never be given back.

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641 Words | 3 Pages

In 2001 after the tragedy of 9/11 President George W. Bush passed the PATRIOT Act. The act is supposed to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks, but what it's actually doing is defying most principles this country was founded upon. Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act enables the FBI and the NSA to listen to the phone records of millions of Americans. Not only is the government invading the privacy of millions, but the way it's being done is illegal. The government is invading on the personal lives of people who have never been suspected of being a terrorist.

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866 Words | 4 Pages

The Patriot Act allows investigators to use the tools that were already available to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking. George W. Bush decided to create and push the Patriot Act as a way of protection for the people just 45 days after the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. Bush placed this act in hopes that he would be able to prevent any types of terrorist or unsafe act from happening again. Today, people are quick to disagree with this idea due to the idea that they are being watched constantly. Although it is understandable, knowing that privacy is not considered when it comes to our personal lives, the government is just monitoring us to keep us protected.

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647 Words | 3 Pages

The article "Patriot Act Protects Americans from Terrorism" explains the benefits of the act. One key area is it has removed obstacles to investigating terrorism and it has strengthened the criminal laws against terrorism. This is very important because if the governement didn't make these restrictions, there would be numerous terrorism attacks on the country. In the article "Fight the Patriot Act", it explains that the act violates the privacy of Americans because of the FBI and NSA collecting phone records of millions of people through the Patriot Act. The article is wrong because the cooperations are not violating privacy, they are simply working to prevent possible threats to Americans.

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168 Words | 1 Pages

“The Patriot Act broadly undermines the rights of all Americans. It reduces judicial oversight of a host of investigative measures, including wiretaps, expands the government 's ability to track individuals ' Internet use and gives federal officials expansive new powers that are in no way limited to investigating terrorist crimes. ( thenation) It authorizes an end run around the Fourth Amendment by allowing the government to conduct wiretaps and searches in criminal investigations, without probable cause of a crime, as long as the government claims that it also seeks to gather foreign intelligence--an authority that is particularly questionable in light of recent disclosures from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that the FBI has

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888 Words | 4 Pages

Identifying the most critical leadership problems within the brigade, I will use “the Rocket Model” as a team building and guiding tool that helps me to get the brigade back on track. I will use the following seven components of the Rocket Model (Mission/ Vision, Talent, Norms, Buy-In, Power, Morale, and Results) to build and develop the brigade. Primary, I will focus on the Mission and Talent during the remaining time of the preparing phase. Mission/ Vision: the first thing I will do is to publicize my vision clearly, which is to make the brigade one of the best in the army as it always was.

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Snowden first leaked the documents in June 2013. Some documents included information on American espionage efforts against enemies. Others revealed how the NSA was spying on its allies as well. When Snowden leaked the information, it didn’t just make the enemies hate the US further, but it also harmed the relationship it had with its ally countries. Aside from that, terrorist groups already have an idea on how the intelligence activities were performed, not only by the US, but also its ally countries such as Australia and UK.

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