Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism in the US

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The USA PATRIOT Act
Description of Policies
Act Adoption Procedure
Beneficiaries of the Act
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

After the terrorist attacks that inflicted a colossal trauma on the collective American mentality, it was decided to develop a single large-scale act to counter terrorist activities. The act was developed after the Bush Jr. administration made an appeal to the international Taliban group with a request to assist in the capture of bin Laden, who coordinated the work of the criminals. The Taliban said they had no direct relation to acts of terrorism and offered the authorities to catch the criminals on their own. The Taliban’s failure to accept responsibility for the terrorist attacks has led to more decisive action by American politicians. Also, President Bush received a demand to immediately liquidate all bases for training terrorists, to which he also received a negative response.

The USA PATRIOT Act

The situation implied that the American population was at an even greater risk of a terrorist threat. In foreign policy, the administration made an immediate decision to begin aerial bombardment of military bases in Afghanistan. However, more urgent measures were required to combat terrorism in domestic politics. So already in October 2001, a set of counter-terrorism measures was adopted called the USA PATRIOT Act. The reason, it should be noted, was not only the devastating attacks on the two towers, but also the precedent with letters with the disputes of the deadly anthrax disease, which were spread by terrorists among the American state elite. The name of this act is the original abbreviation, which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.

Description of Policies

The very first section of this act is devoted to strengthening the internal security of the population of the States in the framework of countering terrorism. It includes government treasury counterterrorism funding, which includes funding to improve technical support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Also sponsored is the military service, which must be trained to react quickly and use force in an emergency. The first section of the act also enhances the president’s authoritarian role, making him the de facto commander-in-chief with unquestionable unambiguous orders in the context of the state of emergency declared in America. The role of the president and the unequivocal importance of his decisions come into force only after the adoption of an act that significantly expands his powers. This act also takes into account the possibility of xenophobia and racism and therefore calls for the avoidance of discrimination against the Arab and Muslim population of the country.

The second fundamental innovation proposed by this extended act was the improvement of observation procedures in the country, designed to timely establish and neutralize the threat of a terrorist attack. Since the adoption of the act, the social apparatus of the United States has been able to collect information about the inhabitants of their country, and this could be done in virtually any possible way. In this emergency situation, the freedoms of American citizens were significantly limited, which was explained by the need to maintain national security. As part of the second chapter of the act, the authorities were given the right to exploit verbal and electronic communication for wiretapping.

Violation of the openness of computer information and its hiding was tantamount to fraud and was thus considered a crime of hiding information. Intelligence recorded any electronic conversations and activity in order to decipher and interpret it. Moreover, the Bureau of Investigation hired a number of professional translators to help uncover potential terrorist plans in order to prevent crimes. Voicemail was also recorded and sent to the Bureau for further interpretation. All electronic communications were thus exposed and the American citizen actually lost the right to true privacy of personal information in the name of one’s own protection by the state.

Act Adoption Procedure

On October 24, 2001, the H.R. 3162 Act was approved by the House of Representatives by 357 votes to 66. The US Senate passed the bill by 98 votes to one against. On October 26, President George W. Bush signed into law. Moreover, this Act expands the powers of the two previous anti-terrorist bills, adopted in October 2001, including the developments of the anti-terrorist financial act H. R. 3004 (USA PATRIOT Act, 2001). The term of this Law has been extended several times. Throughout the entire period of action, it drew sharp criticism both among the activists and in domestic political circles. The law has also been amended over the course of the Bush administration and has gradually reduced its powers despite opposition from the administration to the Senate. Thus, all the aforementioned Bureaucratic forces are involved in the implementation of this series of measures at the federal level.

Subsequently, the law was amended, since the US Senate by 94 votes against two on 20.03.2007 voted to deprive the American administration of the unlimited right to remove and appoint prosecutors. This right was granted to the White House by the Patriot Act, and made it possible for the state to control the course of justice. This act has not been completely abolished, since in 2011, already under the Obama administration, the Sunset Extension Act of 2011 was adopted. As part of this act, new strategies for surveillance and collection of information to ensure security were proposed. Thus, one can talk about the presence of a democratic procedure within the framework of which the adoption of the Act and the extension of its effectiveness took place.

Beneficiaries of the Act

Along with this, the beneficiaries of this act are still not ordinary Americans, but the state that gets the opportunity to actually constantly monitor its population. The boundaries of surveillance and the issue of ethics in this case are out of state discussion precisely because of urgent reasons requiring immediate strategies. Security and intelligence agencies receive additional government funding and therefore benefit from the project. As for ordinary Americans, they find themselves in a disadvantageous situation when paranoia and lack of awareness of the scale of the terrorist threat due to disinformation leads to panic. Additionally, their right to true privacy is violated, since the act goes beyond just calculating suspicious activity on the Internet.

An even bigger blow is the Muslim and immigrant population of America, which is automatically under serious suspicion of involvement in terrorism, which is an overwhelming manifestation of fear and xenophobia. Thus, the beneficiaries of this act are the security and intelligence structures, as well as the president himself, who has unlimited powers in an emergency. The shortcomings and imperfections of this act are experienced by the ordinary population, which loses its sense of security. The most vulnerable is the Muslim diaspora in America, which is under constant suspicion. If we add to this status of immigrants the absence of the presumption of innocence and the right to biased interrogation in prison, we can say that the Muslim diaspora has significantly lost its democratic rights.

In order to counter the financing of terrorism, the state has also introduced strict control over the circulation of money in order to prevent money laundering. Suspicious activity in the private sector and general banking systems should have come under closer scrutiny. Also, additional control was paid to curbing the influx of migrants at the country’s borders, as a result of which border protection was significantly strengthened. It should be noted that within the framework of deterring terrorism, the principle of suspicion worked everywhere. Eventually, it was considered to be enough to leave a person in custody for observation by investigators for an immeasurably long period. With regard to family support for immigrants, it has been clearly delineated so that support is received by children and wives who are in no way associated with terrorist activities. The families of terrorists, on the other hand, could not receive financial or other type of support under any circumstances.

Conclusion

When discussing the strategy for the adoption of the PATRIOT Act, it should be noted that it was approved extremely quickly, which was due to the time frame of the emergency. Indeed, it seems logical that the act was drafted swiftly, since at that time it seemed the only reasonable way to show the American population that the state was seriously concerned with the problem. This bill was extended until 2007 and was subsequently expanded, edited and transformed. However, in general, one can say that the surveillance system, which receives unlimited powers to restrict private and civil freedoms, serves as the main beneficiary of this act.

Reference

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT Act), H.R.3162 (2001).

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