Criminology Counterrorism the USA Patriot

Criminology

Counterrorism

The USA Patriot Act which is officially known as Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act was quickly developed as anti-terrorism legislation in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. This large and complex law received very little Congressional oversight and debate, and was signed into law by President Bush Oct. 26, 2001. This act gives all-encompassing search and surveillance to domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence agencies and eliminates checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that these powers were not abused (the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, n.d.).

The Patriot Act was designed to fight terrorism in three different ways: disrupting terrorist's funding, improving methods of prosecuting terrorists, and expanding surveillance procedures and intelligence sharing. The first step in disrupting terrorism is locating the terrorists before they can successfully act against the United States. The Patriot Act provides the resources for the federal government to gather intelligence on these plots, primarily through wiretaps and search warrants. Another tool made available by the Patriot Act is delayed-notification search warrants, or sneak and peek warrants. These are warrants that allow for the execution of a search and seizure of a property in a federal crime without notification of the subject of the warrant. A third tool provided by the Patriot Act is the libraries provision. This expands the FBI's authority to seize records of terrorist activities, specifically business records. The Act allows information about terrorist activities to be shared between federal, state and local governments, as it has been for other types of crimes. Another way the Patriot Act fights terrorism is by cutting off sources of illegal funding, which it does by attempting to curtail money laundering. The act requires all monetary institutions to enact a four part program. They must employ a compliance officer, establish a training program to recognize money laundering, establish a testing or auditing program to evaluate the accuracy of laundering detection and establish policies to avoid being used to launder money (Patriot Act, 2010).

Because of the fact that this act had little discussion before it was passed and the full ramifications of what was being passed were not completely investigated this act leaves a lot of room for interpretation that leads people to feel that it contains many civil liberties violations. Under the Patriot Act, civil liberties, especially those dealing with privacy rights, have taken a severe blow. The law radically expands the ability of states and the Federal Government to conduct surveillance of American citizens. The Government can examine an individual's web surfing records, use roving wiretaps to monitor phone calls made by individuals nearby to the primary person being tapped, access Internet Service Provider records, and monitor the private records of people involved in legitimate protests (the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, n.d.).

The Patriot Act is not limited to just terrorism. The Government can add samples to DNA databases of individuals who are convicted of any crime of violence. Government spying on suspected computer trespassers, not just those who are terrorist suspects, requires no court order. Wiretaps are now permissible for any suspected violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This allows for the possibility of Government spying on any computer user (the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, n.d.).

Because of this act the Foreign and domestic intelligence agencies can more easily spy on Americans. Powers given to the existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) have been expanded to allow for increased surveillance opportunities. FISA standards are lower than the constitutional standard that would be applied by the courts in regular investigations. The Patriot Act partially repeals legislation that was enacted in the 1970s that prohibited pervasive surveillance of Americans (the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, n.d.).

This act also eliminates Government accountability. While it freely eliminates privacy rights for individual Americans, it creates more secrecy for Government an activity, making it extremely difficult to know about the actions the Government is taking. The act approves the use of sneak and peek search warrants in connection with any federal crime, including misdemeanors. A sneak and peek warrant gives permission law enforcement officers to enter private premises without the occupant's permission or knowledge and without informing the occupant that such a search was conducted (the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, n.d.).

There are several other areas in which the act is seen as violating civil liberties. The first is in the area of the National Security Letters (NSLs). The FBI can use NSLs to force internet service providers, libraries, banks, and credit reporting companies to turn over sensitive information about their customers and customers. By using this data, the government can put together immense profiles about innocent people. Government reports have confirmed that upwards of 50,000 secret record demands go out each year. "In response to an ACLU lawsuit (Doe v. Holder), the Second Circuit Court of Appeal struck down as unconstitutional the part of the NSL law that gives the FBI the power to prohibit NSL recipients from telling anyone that the government has secretly requested customer Internet records" (Patriot Act - Eight Years Later, 2009).

A second area is that of the Material Support Statute. This makes it a criminal offense to provide material support to terrorists. This is defined as supplying any tangible or intangible good, service or advice to a terrorist or designated group. As adjusted by the Patriot Act and other laws since September 11, this section criminalizes a wide array of activities, regardless of whether they actually or intentionally further terrorist goals or organizations. Federal courts have thrown out portions of the statute as unconstitutional and a number of cases have been dismissed or ended in mistrial (Patriot Act - Eight Years Later, 2009).

A third area is that of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. In 2008, Congress passed a law that permits the Government to conduct warrantless and suspicion-less collections of U.S. residents' international telephone calls and e-mails. Many experts feel that this must be amended in order to provide meaningful privacy protections and judicial oversight of the government's intrusive surveillance power (Patriot Act - Eight Years Later, 2009).

The United States Constitution was built on several founding principles that have made it continue to be the powerful document that it is today. One of these principles is that of the check and balance system. This system was originally designed so that no one function of the government could become any more powerful than any other. This system is used to make sure that each branch of the government is completely aware that the things that they do also affect the others. So many things that are included in the Patriot Act go against the very grain of this element of the Constitution; it makes one wonder what were they thinking.

The Patriot Act was nothing more than a knee jerk reaction by the Government after the events of September 11th. They felt like something needed to be done and done quickly and so they came up with this. There was not near the time spent on this act discussing it and its implications as there has been on other acts that were a whole lot less important. Those who implemented this act failed to look beyond the immediate situation that the country was in so that they could see the repercussions that might come out of enacting such policy.

Civil liberties are the rights and freedoms are guaranteed to protect an individual from the state. Civil liberties are meant to set boundaries on the government so that it cannot abuse their power and excessively interfere with the lives of private citizens. Common civil liberties include the right to freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, and also the right to due process, to a trial, to own property, and to have privacy. These liberties are those on which this country was formed and have been upheld for many years as absolute certainties.