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The Pros And Cons Of The Patriot Act

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On September 11th, 2001 two planes horrifically struck the world trade center killing 2977 Americans. The President, Senate, and House of Representatives enacted the Patriot Act in response to this horrendous act of terrorism. This act allows the United States Government to track suspected terrorists' phone calls, purchases, and suspicious activities. The act has provided new ways to fraught the plans of terrorists before they can come into action. Since the passing of the Patriot Act, the NSA has been able to stop major attacks before they even happen. Some Americans believe that the Patriot Act is a violation of privacy, but the government takes crucial steps to ensure the privacy of all law-abiding Americans. Despite contrary beliefs, the …show more content…

Mr. Anderson notes four of these advantages in his passage of the Patriot Act. “(1) it has removed obstacles to investigating terrorism; (2) it has strengthened the criminal laws against terrorism; (3) it has enhanced the federal governments capacity to share intelligence; and (4) it has updated the law to keep pace with the tremendous advances in technology. Essentially the Patriot Act gives investigators the ability to fight terror, using many of the same court-approved tools that have been used successfully for many years in drug, fraud, and organized crime cases.”(Anderson). …show more content…

For example source three states, “As of May 5, 2004, the Department of Justice has charged 310 defendants with criminal offenses as a result of terrorism investigations since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and 179 of those defendants have already been convicted, including shoe bomber Richard Reid.”(Anderson). The implementation of the Patriot Act has made it possible to catch people like Richard before they can even strike. The Patriot Act has not just caught those committing terroristic crimes, but those who assist. For example, in prompt three the author notes that “Four terrorist cells in Buffalo, Portland, Detroit, and Seattle have been broken up, and millions of dollars in assets destined to finance terrorist activities have been frozen or forfeited.”(Anderson). Not only is law enforcement able to track down the terrorists, but now they can find and arrest those who finance their operations. Source four goes into more detail on previse attempts of terrorism in the United States that have been foiled by the Patriot Act up to 2010. The infographic highlights how the Patriot Act has prevented Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, the Lackawanna Six, Iyman Faris, the Virginia Jihad Network, Nuradin M. Abdi, Dhiren Barot, James Elshafay, Shahawar Martin Sira, Yassin Aref, Mohammad Hossain, Umer Hayat, Hamid Hayat, Kevin James, Michael C. Reynolds, Syed Haris

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