What is the premise behind the USA PATRIOT Act?

Question

Could someone please briefly explain to me this Law. I am having trouble understanding the essence of it. Why is this law considered as a controversial piece of federal legislation? Thanks!

Answer 1

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001

It's a collection of dozens of specific changes to various sections of federal law. The full text of the 2001 Act is linked below.

Most of the provisions remove blocks on sharing information between government agencies. Some of the provisions remove procedural requirements, making surveillance activities easier.

The most controversial provisions are the ones that allow the government to access and use personal information, such as financial statements, library records, medical information, school transcripts, and so on. Some provisions were found to have crossed the line and were held unconstitutional, but those were corrected in the 2006 updates.

In short, it strips to the bare minimum the constitution protections against govt surveillance.

Answer 2

The jist of the legislation enables the government broader power of intelligence gathering against people in the United States. It also enables intelligence agencies and law enforcement to share information which was at one time prohibited. The patriot act sets up secret courts where intelligence assets would not have to testify in open court. It is controversial because the U.S government has for the most part never really defended itself from internal threats and is openly spying on the populace. Americans have always had a healthy mistrust of the government. I wanted to keep my answer as politically uncharged as possible for your benefit.

Cheers, Scott

Answer 3

The law was passed hastily after 9/11. It was based on expert testimony as to what terrorists were doing to operate within the US, taking advantage of many layers of restriction on our government agencies tasked with detecting and arresting them.

Since the Patriot Act removed many of those restrictions, the FBI has been free to communicate with the CIA and NSA, has been free to investigate 'religious' institutions where terrorists previously hid from scrutiny, has been able to track terrorists through web sites and do many other things that were previously forbidden.

Many people object to the Patriot Act claiming it infringes upon their 'Right to Privacy' that, oddly, is not found anywhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution. This alleged Right is demanded most sternly by those wishing to conceal their activities from scrutiny.

During WWII, Government opened and read postal mail, arrested people for talking too freely in a cafe' about government operations, prevented the press from printing information that might be useful to enemies, ordered city-wide blackouts, forced people to use ration cards to limit purchases and imposed all sorts of other restrictions. Why? Because in a war, one does what one must to WIN.

What we are doing today is NOTHING compared to what was done during WWII. That is why we won WWII and may well lose this one.

Today, enemies within the United States work very hard to prevent us from WINNING. Leftists actually hate the US and would rather see folks like Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Communist China rule the world. Therefore, they try to thwart activities that are proven effective at detecting and defeating our enemies, such as those allowed by the Patriot Act.

When Cindy Sheehan came to my home town, she said her goal is to discourage young people from joining the military so that America would be 'disarmed' and Hugo Chavez could gain the upper hand. I have this on video tape.

This war is a fight for survival, given the ever-improving sophistication of the enemy and his weapons. If we do not fight to win, then the enemy wins and gets to impose his version of government upon the world. After seeing that version rule Afghanistan during the 1990s, I am certain that I do not want him to win.

Answer 4

Yea, I wouldn't hold out much hope for an objective analysis on Yahoo! questions. I remember once there was a big flap over whether or not they had the right to look at the list of stuff you've checked out of the library. I reacted to that with complete indifference. Perhaps wikipedia could do a better job?

Answer 5

Because it helps the USA defend itself against terrorism. If the US can defend itself than the left cannot have a victory. The left only wins when the US loses, they crafted the defeat in Vietnam, that was their last big victory.

They would rather lose more Americans than admit that they are no longer relevant.

Answer 6

The law is a snowjob. It's ultimate objective is to allow the RNC to do " Watergate like" spying on the Democrats and not get in trouble for it this time, like they did the last. The Republicans have shown us repeatedly that they can't win a fair elelction and for as long as I have been voting...and I am a former Republican, the sole intention of the RNC is to rig the election!
I served as an Election Judge in the 80's when Dutch Reagan's gang was put in the whitehouse and the RNC was a "den of thieves" long before I was born.

So in short, the Bush gang wants to spy on their competition (like they did at Watergate) and this time they don't want to get caught.