The Patriot Act

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, better known as the Patriot Act, was created in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The act greatly increased the surveillance and investigational power of all law enforcement agencies in the United States. The government developed the act in the hopes of putting a speedy end to terrorism, in turn Americans everywhere would have to surrender privacy. The act basically granted unlimited power to the government and its affiliates to violate the rights of Americans everywhere.

After the Sept. 11th attacks, the U.S. government discovered that some of the hijackers had been living in the country illegally while making plans to sabotage the country. The government decided that in order to prevent similar failures in detecting terrorists, it needed to expand the power of law enforcment and intelligence agencies like the FBI and CIA

The act gives the federal government permission to target any American and spy on a person's every move. Once the act was signed into law on October 26, 2001 the rights of people everywhere were being handed to the federal government. Many people are unaware of how much power the act gives to the federal government, law enforcement and international intelligence agencies.

The government needs no permission to invade a person's personal life because it already has all the permission it needs. Without giving any notice the US government can target any American citizen by using surveillance equipment. Violating the rights of people nationwide by invasion of privacy, the government has already been granted the right to invade the privacy of people everywhere by being allowed to use wire-tapping devices on a citizen's telephone line and use other tracing equipment. The Patriot act also grants the government access to citizen's financial records. Citizens are having a hard time finding a correalation between a terrorist attack and personal finances. In addition the government also has the power to imprison any person even suspected of terrorism, with or without suffice evidence.