USA PATRIOT Act

By Snake Blocker, Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas

     The USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym. It stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. This Act came in shortly after 11 September 2001. This Act created a major change, adding significant surveillance power and search power to the intelligence agencies. President George W. Bush signed it into law in October 2001. Two years later in 2003, the USA PATRIOT Act was amended. Several changes took place to existing statues. Some related to a person’s privacy on the telephone, as well as a person’s privacy, via electronic communications. The amended Act gave further definitions to several new crimes. Some of the current crimes incurred increased penalties with the new amendment. The USA PATRIOT Act amendment also adds more details to define money laundering and operation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. On the surface, the USA PATRIOT was presented to the citizens to be proactive in the fight against both local and global terrorism. This Act added new requirements for financial institutions to adhere to relating international transactions coming from both US citizens and foreigners. The USA PATRIOT Act required banks and other financial institutions to report, any time there was suspicious activity on an account that looked like money laundering; money used for terrorist involvement; and/or money used for criminal activity. The USA PATRIOT Act added measures to prevent people from using the financial system for personal gain when suspected of transactions being used for terrorism or other criminal activity with foreign officials being involved. The Act made allowances for repatriation of those that were identified as having their assets acquired via illegal activity (USA PATRIOT, 2023).

     The Bush Administration presented to the United States Congress a legislation proposal to give the US government more power. The power specifically requested allowances for more surveillance, more investigative liberties, and free rein to detain all suspected terrorists. The issue is in the wording. Any citizen of the United States could be labeled as a suspected terrorists simply because they talked to a person that may have looked like they came from a country that supports terrorist activity. A neighbor could call with information stating that their neighbor looks suspicious and may be a terrorist, because they keep to themselves, pay cash for things, or come home at odd hours. By 11 October 2001, the Uniting and Strengthening America ACT was passed via a US Senate bill. Things were moving seemingly at warp speed, since the next day on 12 October 2001, the United State House passed the Senate’s Uniting and Strengthening America Act. In less than a couple weeks, on 23 October 2021, the House introduced a compromise bill, which became the USA PATRIOT Act. The Senate agreed and adopted the USA PATRIOT Act without any changes and two days later (25 October 2001), President George W. Bush signed the House Measure into United States law (History Editors, 2023).

     The timing was perfect for the United States government to take power away from The People, as emotions were high and without full disclosures the passed the PATRIOT Act and the Homeland Security Act, in the name of “Security” and “Revenge.” Few people spoke up against it and the United States citizens surrendered more freedom and privacy in the name of “Global War on Terrorism.” It seemed like a small price to pay for peace of mind. “Let Uncle Sam take care of Business.” The United States was going through a change and would mirror the power of communism. There were a lot of questions from agency leaders about jurisdictional overlap, conflict of law, conflict of interest, specific boundaries of agencies and oversight regulations. Prior to the USA PATRIOT Act, back in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was passed as a foundation for a legal framework on surveillance. It covered both physical surveillance and electronic surveillance of foreign entities/agents. FISA detailed the United States intelligence agencies the rights and power to use surveillance on suspected terrorist and suspected persons involved in espionage. FISA also gave way for a court to supervise the intelligence agencies requests for surveillance use and surveillance warrants at a federal level.  The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court maintains secrecy to the public, so few are in the know as to who and how many are being monitored. All in the name of the protection of its citizens and national security. During the Nixon Administration, surveillance abuse was suspected so Congress passed FISA to investigate any government surveillance abuse. FISA has been amended several times since then. One of the FISA amendments was the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (say that five times fast). A bit too long so we now simply call it the USA PATRIOT Act. For those that paid attention, the USA PATRIOT Act quickly added surveillance permissions to include its own citizens. In Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act there is a provision, known as the “Business Records” that allows investigative agencies to obtain a court order in secret. It also allows telephone companies and other communication companies, including AT&T, Team Mobile, Comcast, and others to hand over phones records. Security video footage can also be requested. Prior to this the agency would have to show a burden of proof in criminal cases with probable cause. Section 215 requires little to no burden of proof for the government to invade privacy and acquire personal phone records and video footage. Ther is no need for probable cause (PC) attached to criminal activity (Evanko, 2023).

Summary

     The goal of the Homeland Security Act (HSA) was to prevent terrorist attacks against the citizens of the United States. HSA was created to decrease damage of terrorist attacks if they do occur. Another objective of the HSA was to recover quickly after a terrorist attacks. Finally, the HSA also focused on being proactive and reducing the susceptibility of attacks. HSA Officers have the power to do their own investigations as they see fit to collect data to prevent terrorist attacks. The goal of the USA PATRIOT ACT was to overlap some of HSA with their focus on deterring terrorist attacks and punishing terrorist, locally and globally. Wire Taps GPS Taps, Video Taps are “free game” under the USA PATRIOT Act. Personal information is no longer private, and citizens can be watched for even the slightest possibility of being involved or are in any way connected with possible terrorist, terrorist groups or even if a citizen looks at a website that has some potential connection to terrorism (Bill of Rights, 2023).

References

Bill of Rights. (2023). Department of Justice Summary of the PATRIOT Act, Retrieved from,

-https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/handout-a-department-of-justice-summary-of-usa-patriot-act

Evanko, L. (2023). FISA and the USA PATRIOT Act: Reforms and Legal Implications.

     Retrieved from,

-https://legaljournal.princeton.edu/fisa-and-the-usa-patriot-act-reforms-and-legal-implications/

History Editors. (July 27, 2023). PATRIOT Act. Retrieved from,

-https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/patriot-act

USA PATRIOT. (2023). USA PATRIOT Act. Retrieved from,

-https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-regulations/usa-patriot-act