The USA Patriot Act as a Threat - Essay Example

United s of America Patriot Act The United s of America Patriot Act was born right after the September 11, 2001 attacks of the terrorist that made a great impact on the government of the United States of America and the whole world. The US Congress made the Patriot Act of USA and passed it without having an opposition on it. The USA Patriot Act serves as an anti-terrorism act. The Patriot Act was making possible for the America to be united and to strengthen the nation by providing the necessary tools that are needed to interrupt and block the terrorist act. The interruption and obstruction of these possible terrorists' acts are made through the expansion of the law enforcer's surveillance and giving them additional powers and rights to investigate that brought threat to the privacy and democratic tradition in the history of the United States. President Bush had officially signed the USA Patriot Act on the 26th day of October 2001 (Gonzalez). The USA Patriot Act as a Threat The Patriot Act gave threat to the millions of US citizens. This is due to the power given to the law enforcers and giving them the right to enter records of the normal inhabitants of the country. The act supports the rights to access the medical records, tax records, and other basic information such as the books you buy, the books you borrowed even without a cause. The Patriot Act also provides the law enforcers the rights to enter your house without the permission coming from you, and make researches without telling the owner for several weeks, months or even not telling you at all. USA PATRIOT ACT on CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION There are several modifications on the act. Some of these are the surveillance laws, the tracking of suspected terrorist, and the capture of those suspected. The modifications includes the dual purpose of the act to give the authorities the rights to intervene in the personal, private and confidential telephone calls, face-to-face communication and communications through the use of computer and together with these is the right for those who are the authorities to the identification and the interception of those suspected as criminal communications. The modifications on the act regarding the telephone calls, whether it maybe a highly personal calls, that really are of the person's privacy context are included, are not hidden for the authorities through checking on the telephone company records of the calls made from an individuals home of to the individual's telephone. Wiretapping as it was called or electronic eavesdropping or the electronic surveillance can be done by the authorities without prior notice. Also, the bank records of an individual, and the deals made are also tracked. Procedures The procedures that are under the modification of the act are the following: the authorities are permitted to pen register and trace and trap orders that are made through the use of electronic communications such as deals done through the electronic-mail or the like the nationwide implementation for pen registers, trap and trace devices, and the access to the communication records and stored electronic mails are authorized the stored voice mail and telephone conversations stored can be treated by the authorities the interception of communications from an intruder or to the intruder inside the computer system by authorities are permitted but with the system's owner's permission the authorities are given the authority to put the terrorist and computer crimes to the offense list protection for the authorities are supported by the Patriot Act the Patriot Act of the USA aims for the foreign intelligence investigators' and the law enforcement's cooperation those who are on the authority and the government personnel, under the Patriot Act are protected for some of the communications privacy violation Protective Measures of the Patriot Act The USA Patriot Act had designed protective measures for the authorities. The protective measures focused on the prevention of the abuse of the given rights for the intervention on the information (e.g. intervention on the private telephone calls, electronic mails, bank records, etc) and the protection to those who help the government. One of the best known protective measures of the Patriot Act is the sunset clause, which grants the protections for the law enforcement and the foreign intelligence investigators. There is also a sanction for the abusive use of the private information subject to the authorities. The amount of $10,000 and the costs for the violation and an administrative discipline are supplemented for those authorities who made an offense. The other protective measure is applied to the service providers (e.g. the service provider of the telecommunication, and the electronic mail service providers) and to those that helps the authorities for the gathering of information (e.g. through the communications done in telephone, banks, e-mail). Foreign Intelligence Investigators and their Investigation Foreign investigations are somewhat limited in the United States by the state because simply they are foreigner to their country. Foreign investigators as we know, make researches inside the country and outside (to the other country). In this sense, the Patriot Act of US made some limitations to the foreign investigators but still made some amendments on the Act. The foreign investigators are restricted and have the following rights reserved for their foreign investigations: "roving" surveillance are permitted; identification of the facilities or the place to where the investigation is to occur are prevented with particularity by the court. This is for the reason to protect the establishments and facilities in the US to be given a bad name by foreign investigators. The Act allows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to increase the number of judges from 7 to 11 When gathering foreign intelligence, the Patriot Act allows FISA surveillance to do search order if the reason is of a 'significant reason' not by the 'the reason' the foreign investigators are authorized to do pen register and trap and trace methods for orders through electronic mails and also for telephone conversations foreign investigators are also covered by the privacy violations of government personnel allege Cooperation from Others The USA Patriot Act also tries to encourage others for their cooperation. In the Patriot Act, there are several sections that were designed for the third party from being liable for their assistance. There are also protective measures for this 'third party' who helps the authorities gather information for the subject like information from telephone conversations, electronic mail, etc. Information Accessibility On the 14th day of September, three days after the September 11 attacks, the need for the sharing of information from the law enforcement, the intelligence and from the foreign intelligence has been the aim of the US Congress. The Administration stress out that the sharing of information is essential. The said sharing is the information's effective sharing from the different components of the government. This is of a big help for fighting the terrorist and future terrorist attacks. However, the sharing of information of different working organizations was hindered by the cultural aspects, bureaucracy, resources, trainings, and other factors (Web). Information Sharing 1. any executive branch official can access the shared information gathered through the investigation 2. the grand jury material are allowed to be shared to the intelligence officials 3. the constraints such as the cultural factors, bureaucracy, resources, trainings, and other factors must be eliminated and the information gathered through investigations must be disclosed Capacity of an Institution The USA Patriot Act gives authorization for the hiring of translators for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), section 203. In this way, the FBI's capacity will be develop due to the increase in their authority. Their capacity for conducting foreign intelligence investigations will be enhanced. Borders The USA Patriot Act also holds a border protection for alien terrorists and their probable victims. The Patriot Act had the following amendments: Border Patrol, Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) personnel are allowed to have a number of triple the normal, section 401 The upgrade of border surveillance equipment for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Customs Service are authorized to have its upgrade and given an additional 50 million dollar an overtime pay for border duty were applied the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service are allowed to provide criminal data for the possible suspects (visa applicants and other applicants that are possible suspect must for the entrance to the United States) the Patriot Act of US describe the need for the implementation of programs that will cover the foreign student visa to be monitored Victims The USA Patriot Act also holds amendments for the victims. For foreign nationals, there must be a provided immigration relief. For the victims of the September 11 attack as an example, the following must be provided: the victims and the members of their family must be qualified for employment (e.g. the victims from other nationalities, alien resident of the US) benefits should also apply to the resident aliens and their family members an administrative relief should also apply to the alien family member whom are not entitle under the Act, section 425 Benefits are only for those victims that are not suspects for the terrorist attacks. There should be no benefits for the terrorists or their family members New Crimes The USA Patriot Act had made a list that was entitled 'new crimes'. This list is consisted of the crimes that are subject to mass destruction that also is similar to terrorist's acts. Attacks on transportation facilities that causes mass damage and killings of mass number of people, using biological weapons as offensive weapons, harboring terrorists, giving support for terrorist whether financially or other form of support, are examples of the new crimes that were on the list under the USA Patriot Act (Web). In addition to these new crimes on the lists, if the following listed below are done willfully, and then it is a crime. Amerigives uses the Patriot Act Screening Process to check if there were future terrorist's attacks that may happen through funding and support to terrorists or terrorism (AMERIGIVES). The Amerigives process is shown in the diagram below. Penalties for the Crimes REFERENCES Read More