Terrorism and the Law in the USA - Essay Example

Terrorism and Law Terrorism has been one of the serious issues which the modern world has encountered over the years. Almost all the countries of the world have been affected by the force of terror which involves coercion, unlawful violence and even leads to war. Terrorism involves mass killing of people and destruction of resources for political, social and other variety of motives. In recent times one of the worst countries to be affected by the force of terror is the United States of America. United States of America had undergone massive changes both in the legal and political framework after the tragic events in the history of the country in the form of attacks in the World Trade center. An analysis of the problem of terrorism in USA, covering both the aspect of international and domestic has been considered and the study of the law incorporated by the government in handling matters of terrorism has been considered. Terrorism in USA: Terrorism was largely held as an international and the foreign policy of the organizations. However various terrorist groups started focusing all its attention towards the United States from the beginning of this decade. In the year 2001, almost 63% of all the terror attacks were aimed at the citizens of the United States (Perl, 2003). Terror attacks have not only occurred in the United States but the citizens of the country have been massively affected in other parts of the world also. The catastrophic event in the World trade center is by far the worst terror attack which mankind has experienced. However US started experiencing the threat of terror much before the disaster in the World Trade Center. The country had also faced numerous cases of domestic terrorism, carried out by the citizens of US between the periods of 1980 to 2000. United States of America was seriously affected by domestic terrorism in various parts of Arizona, California, and Illinois. The areas were massively affected by such acts of terror and the government had a hard time bringing the situations under their control. Even the accused of the terror attacks which took place in California were convicted and several domestic extremist were arrested but such acts of terror were never under the control. Domestic terrorism spread in the country because of the right wing extremist and for the attainment of various political reasons in the country. However in recent times the act of domestic terrorism has been overshadowed by the international terrorism. The domestic terrorists based in US carry out the attacks not only on the human beings but also on the environment and other animals. One of the serious form of domestic terrorism which has been encountered in America is the rise of the Anti abortion violence, which carry out their act of vandalism and destruction against the individuals and the organizations, which carries out abortion. The rise of anti abortion violence saw mass kidnapping, attempted murder and even involved bombing which resulted in the loss of property and life. However the issue of terrorism came into the forefront by the attacks carried on September 11. The terrorist activities carried out in the country were well supported by the use of sophisticated planning and logistic. The terrorist group also had the access to unconventional weaponry which aggravated the signs of danger for the citizens of the country. The terrorist groups were mostly self financed and had their presence in various parts of the world. The terror attacks in the World Trade Center were carried out by the Islamic group, Al Qaeda and they used the context of the religion to pose such massive attacks. In matters of carrying out terrorism against US, various countries were found to have direct or indirect link and majority of them were Islamic. However the US government also did reacted swiftly to such calamity caused by the terror groups and a full scale campaign was launched against Afghanistan and the Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. The operation proved effective in eliminating the terror groups and finally led to the killing of Osama Bin laden. During the operation, US forces received massive support from the other countries of the world and this led to the overall success. The terror attacks which took place in 9/11 also revealed a trend of the attackers to carry out their operations in groups along with the transnational nature of the terrorism. The problem of international terrorism appears as a threat to the domestic and the foreign security of the country. The target selection by the terrorist groups both domestic and international, and the timing of the attacks had affected the interest of the country significantly and had hampered the overall peace of the world (Perl, 2003). The effect of the attack on the World Trade Center saw the emergence of war between the USA and Afghanistan which finally lead to the fall of the terrorist group in the country. US laws on terrorism: In order to combat the force of terror, the federal government has carried out major operations against the terrorist groups and has also framed various laws in order to stop the occurrence of terror activities in the country. The anti terrorism policy of the country, during the era of 1970 to 2000 had its focus on the deterring and punishing the state sponsors of the terrorist groups. The government also created a list of the terrorist organization operating from the foreign countries and imposed a ban on the funding of those organizations and also prohibited the granting of visa and any kind of support to such organizations. The Patriot Act was framed in the year 2001 extended the stipulation of the previous acts to secure the lives of the American citizens. Following the calamity of the World Trade center, the Patriot Act was reformed and it reduced a variety of restriction on the agencies associated with the law enforcement. The act also broadened the authority of the law enforcement in detaining suspicious immigrants and to carry out investigations against them. As a result of such extension, various peoples were detained throughout the country and even the persons who were not guilty faced a massive discomfort. Under the act, domestic terrorism was also included and the government decided to handle any form of terrorism with strong hands and penalize the guilty to the severe extent. The US government also framed a variety of laws which allowed the intelligence agencies in the country to search the business data and access any data which they felt is linked with the act of terrorism. In order to prevent the act of money laundering and the financing of the terrorist groups, the government also reframed the “Money Laundering act of 1986”. After the amendment was done strict restrictions and banking rules were modified to prevent the transfer of money to the international terrorist groups. Restrictions were also placed on the operation of the foreign banks, several accounts in various financial institutions for prohibited for access. The new laws and regulation brought in by the new acts, provided penalty to the convicts for carrying their attacks against the transportation system. An imprisonment to a maximum period of 20 years was imposed on the convicts for carrying attacks on the transportation systems without any passenger on it. However if the attacks resulted in the death of any person the convicts were to be imprisoned for life with a financial fine. The government passed laws which hold a person guilty for carrying explosives or biological agents, if there was no valid reason to support the cause and the persons were penalized with imprisonment up to 10 years. The US government undertook a lot of measure to prevent the rise of terrorism and even it was held as a crime to conceal the information about the terrorists and to provide them with shelter and the accused persons were subject to an imprisonment up to 10 years. The US government also framed the forfeiture law for allowing the government authorities to seize the assets of the individuals which have been used for causing terror and or have been used to extend help for carrying out such activities. Any kind of material support for the terrorist activities or providing advice was also declared to be punishable under the US laws. As most of the terrorist groups took the advantage of the technology and also tried to spread terror with the help of the virtual web space, the US government also tried to consider the aspect of cyber crime seriously and opted for providing the hardest punishment to spread of terror through the web. Penalties were imposed for the illegal access and the damage to the protected space and causing harm to the society. Any occurrence of extortion through the protected computers were also under the guidance of the strict regulatory framework and an attempt to infringe the rule was punishable by imprisonment up to 10 years whereas second attempt of a cybercrime was punishable by imprisonment up to 20 years. The offences of cybercrime included the financial loss of a person with an amount of US $5000 or any damage to the physical health of any citizen residing in US. Any damage to the computer system engaged with national security, defense or used for administering justice were also covered under the law. The US laws also covered any damage to the protected computers by malicious software and programmed viruses and the convicts were punished on equal terms. (USA Patriot Act, 2001) Conclusion: The study of the terrorism on the context of US has revealed the problem which the country had faced over the decade in managing the issue. United States of America, being one of the super powers of the world has been one of the favorite destinations of the terrorists operating across the world and the Islamic terrorist groups are found to strike the country on a regular basis. Apart from the aspect of the international terrorism, the country has also been subjected to a wide range of domestic terrorism, which has resulted in mass killings of innocent lives and destruction of various forms of resource. In order to prevent the terrorism, the concept of counter terrorism had evolved and the federal government incorporated various policies and acts to prevent the spread of terrorism. The laws regarding the countering terrorism have been framed with careful consideration of all related aspects and the government does not consider any act of terrorism in a lenient manner. The US government also supports other countries massively who are preventing the spread of terrorism. The after math of 9/11 has completely changed the focus of every Americans in matters of terrorism and dedicates their best to stop such mishaps in future. References USA Patriot Act, (2001), epic, retrieved onDecember, 19, 2011 from: http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html Perl, R, (2003), Terrorism, the Future, and U.S. Foreign Policy, fas, retrieved on December, 19, 2011 from: http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/IB95112.pdf Read More