USA Patriot Act 2001

USA Patriot Act 2001

Introduction

September 11, 2001 marked one of the most horrific events in the history of the United States of America. It was on this day that almost 2800 people lost their lives as a result on the attack on the World Trade Centre (Worth, 2010). It was soon after this event that the president of USA at that time, George W. Bush went on to declare 'War on Terror', and the entire series of these events marked the inception of the Patriot Act of USA (2001). The tragic event that took place and took lives of so many innocents civilians upset the Americans. Thus, considering the atrocity and the true implication of the disaster, the government signed the patriot act into the law of USA on 26th October, 2001 (McCarthy, 2002).

Discussion

Within a matter of six weeks of the horrific event of 11th September 2001, Congress went on to pass the USA patriot Act. The focal point of the patriot act was not only to unite, but also strengthen the American by increasing the ability and the power of counter terrorism. The acronym of the title of the act suggested that it stood for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. This act gave more authority to various law enforcement agencies to collect larger quantities of evidence against terrorism. The bad situation of law and order increased the various penalties for federal crimes and the adjustments regarding all of the federal procedures related to terrorism (Carrigan, Alex & Ward, 2011). In general, the act increased the authority and capability of the law enforcement agencies to cater the growing threats of terrorism.

Advantages of USA Patriot Act of 2001

The focal point of the act is to protect the nation of USA against any form of domestic or foreign terrorism, so that horrific events of 11th September do not take place again. This act went on to lay the definition of domestic terrorism, as it described any person with a clear intention of harming another human life within the boundaries of USA or committing any other forms of violence activities will fall under the category of domestic violence. The Patriot Act marked the history for defining the criteria of domestic terror. It further went on to implement the existing laws pertaining to catering drugs and other related crimes and decided to use them to curb the issues of terrorism. The act allowed law enforcement agencies a better opportunity to investigate into various terrorist potential cases by enabling communication and information sharing between agencies. Though, a plethora of people raised objections against this aspect, but the act makes clear that any such sharing of information solely for the purpose of preventing the possibility of a terrorist activity and this was not to disturb the free speech of any citizen.

By incorporating the Patriot Act permanently into the American statutory authority, the very basic advantage that the citizen will ...