The Patriot ActEssay Preview: The Patriot ActReport this essayThe Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, better known as the Patriot Act, was created in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The act greatly increased the surveillance and investigational power of all law enforcement agencies in the United States. The government developed the act in the hopes of putting a speedy end to terrorism, in turn Americans everywhere would have to surrender privacy. The act basically granted unlimited power to the government and its affiliates to violate the rights of Americans everywhere.
After the Sept. 11th attacks, the U.S. government discovered that some of the hijackers had been living in the country illegally while making plans to sabotage the country. The government decided that in order to prevent similar failures in detecting terrorists, it needed to expand the power of law enforcment and intelligence agencies like the FBI and CIA
The act gives the federal government permission to target any American and spy on a persons every move. Once the act was signed into law on October 26, 2001 the rights of people everywhere were being handed to the federal government. Many people are unaware of how much power the act gives to the federal government, law enforcement and international intelligence agencies.
The government needs no permission to invade a persons personal life because it already has all the permission it needs. Without giving any notice the US government can target any American citizen by using surveillance equipment. Violating the rights of people nationwide by invasion of privacy, the government has already been granted the right to invade the privacy of people everywhere by being allowed to use wire-tapping devices on a citizens telephone line and use other tracing equipment. The Patriot act also grants the government access to citizens financial records. Citizens are having a hard time finding a correalation between a terrorist attack and personal finances. In addition the government also has the power to imprison any person even suspected of terrorism, with or without suffice evidence.
The Patriot Act is designed to make it so that the NSA can use the internet without the judicial approval or authority of those in power. And, for that reason, it is likely that the legislation will continue to be enforced. Despite this, the NSA may still use the same technology used against foreign enemies but it has yet to be confirmed under the warrant law.
To understand how this could end up hurting our economy and our way of life, we need to understand the history of US drone use against terrorist sites and to understand what are the roots of this surveillance against American citizens, particularly the ones who carry out the kill-or-capture techniques.
At the height of the Bush administration in 2001, more than 600 Americans had been killed in drone attacks using the technology. Over the next few years, we have witnessed a stunning reduction in federal laws that, if passed, should go to the ACLU in case they are not.
For many years now there was little public awareness of the government surveillance policies, but in the spring of 2012 the ACLU and the 9/11 Commission published a report calling for changes:
These laws and procedures create a massive and growing and pervasive surveillance system that is in violation of most basic constitutional rights. The government’s efforts violate fundamental constitutional rights such as free speech, privacy, due process, equal protection of the laws, and due process of the law in order to protect the privacy of citizens. The government’s efforts undermine the constitutional safeguards that we hold dear in civil and political life with respect to the right of freedom of religion, the right to privacy, the right to be secure in our homes and the right to vote. The government collects and stores electronic communications that it has not authorized to be used for lawful purposes.
An American citizen’s communications are no longer secure on the government’s list of data subject to seizure by an unreasonable search and seizure that is deemed necessary for the purpose of conducting a job, a vacation, or a legal defense. Instead, and despite the fact the government can use drones to strike terror groups such as al Qaeda and Syrian Kurdish groups (who are suspected of plotting terrorist attacks against Western citizens), the government’s powers are now being used to conduct surveillance on and in the communications of Americans, rather than the communications of our legal, taxpaying citizens.
The NSA did not actually collect any data on American citizens nor was it authorized to use any of that data for any purpose. What the government does share with the public is a vast surveillance program of domestic internet traffic for a variety of purposes including targeting foreign leaders who have been deemed to pose a threat by a foreign intelligence service or the NSA.
The revelations about “war on terror” prompted an explosive response from the American people over the Obama Administration. The Obama Administration has been using drones and surveillance to intimidate our foreign adversaries who do not want to be on the battlefield.
The Obama Administration has been relying on mass surveillance of internet traffic for over a decade, under the guise of national security. The government has then been monitoring millions of Americans without probable cause.
We must fight back against these operations.
Here are a few highlights highlighting these actions in a video taken by a member of the media:
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