What do YOU know about the Patriot Act?

I suspect not much if you are anything about the average American. The Patriot Act was passed in reaction to 9/11 in October of 2001. The title itself exudes seriousness and security. The acronym USA PATRIOT Act actually stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Now, that’s a title! The ultimate goal of the Patriot Act was to be an antiterrorism bill. Recently, as in the past month, the Patriot Act was up for reauthorization. During that time an extension failed the House. (Mostly because it was jammed through with only 45 minutes of discussion and a quick vote.) Then it passed the House with a 10 month extension, went to the Senate and a 3 month extension passed. Today it went back to the House and a 3 month extension it is! The news is buzzing with Patriot Act, but surprisingly its passage is just for three short months. During this time Congress will review the controversial parts of the bill to determine if all of it will stay, or if parts of the Patriot Act will go.  This 10 year old bill most definitely has not passed each time without controversy, discussion, and questions of its constitutionality, and potential violations of privacy.  

The Patriot Act:  Very, Very, Condensed Version

Comprised of 10 titles with numerous sections and explanations within each, condensing the Patriot Act was no easy task.

·         Title I: Enhancing Domestic Security Against Terrorism- This part has to do with the enhancement and development of the FBI and other counter-terrorism agencies. It also calls for the military to be used during times of crisis and gives the president ultimate authority.  

·         Title II: Enhanced Surveillance Procedures-This is the section that makes people a little jumpy. It is within this section that all of the wire-tapping, roving, searches, warrants, seizures of emails, voicemails and any communications comes in.

·         Title III: International Money Laundering Abatement and Anti-Terrorist Financing-This section includes a whole bunch of information about what is and is not allowed with money, laundering, banks, etc.

·         Title IV: Border Security-This is a self-explanatory title. This entire section is devoted to our boarder security.

·         Title V: Removing Obstacles to Investigating Terrorism- Want to become rich? Thanks to this section you could hunt down terrorists and do just that. This section outlines the right for the Attorney General and the Secretary of State to pay rewards to combat terrorism. Along with that DNA identification of terrorists, coordination with law enforcement, and disclosure of education records.

·         Title VI: Providing for victims of Terrorism, Public Safety Officers, and their Families- In short, pay victims of crime quickly and take care of public safety officers who are victims of terrorism.

·         Title VII: Increased Information Sharing for Critical Infrastructure Protection- Basically our information in regards to terrorists needs to span our Federal, State, and local law enforcement.

·         Title VIII: Strengthening the Criminal Laws Against Terrorism-Ever wondered how the word terrorism is defined many different ways? Try this section of the Patriot Act and you will find just that. Many, many definitions, penalties, and in-depth information about terrorism can be found here.

·         Title IX: Improved Intelligence- This can be broken down to training, translation, and tracking. This section discusses training government officials, having a National Translation Center, and having a foreign terrorist asset tracking center.

·         Title X: Miscellaneous-My oh my, what a mysterious title! This section is loaded with different sections that are both vague and so specific that they are confusing. Some topics include definitions of electronic surveillance, venues for money laundering, first responders’ assistance act, authorization of funds for dea police in south and central Asia. This is where many grants were found for state and local preparedness, and expansion and reauthorization of the crime identification technology act for antiterrorism grants to state and local governments.

WHEW! What a TON of Information!

What does it all mean?

The Senate has agreed to a 3 month extension of the Patriot Act. One part under scrutiny is the authority to initiate roving wiretaps. Wondering what a roving wiretap is? Me too! It is a wiretap specific to the USA that follows the surveillance target, meaning, if the target uses different technology or moves to another location the roving wiretap follows the target rather than having to apply for a new surveillance order. The second is the authority to obtain court-approved access to business records considered relevant to terrorist investigations. The third has my favorite title of the, “lone wolf” provision. This allows secret intelligence surveillance of non-US individuals not known to be linked to a specific terrorism activity. After reading that I can’t help but ask myself why we would want to spend time and money watching someone not known to be linked to specific terrorism activity.

The Patriot Act will not soon leave the news. Undoubtedly people and legislators will continue to debate the odds and end of the Patriot Act. What do you, a citizen of the USA think of the Patriot Act? Give your opinion at http://thevotereffect.com Find it under the issues section. Let your voice be heard!

Thank you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act
http://www.msnbc.nsn.com/id/41610513/ns/politics-capitol_hill
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h107-3162&version=enr