Clarifying the Patriot Act

In my last article entitled Telecoms Won't Talk, I briefly outlined that the Bush administration illegally collected private information from telecoms about their users due partly to the Patriot Act. I briefly mentioned it, but I would actually like to go more in depth, considering it concerns all American Citizen's privacy, which, I assume is of great importance to everyone.

The Patriot Act, or by my standards, "the worst law ever," actually stands for the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001," passed by Congress and signed into law by George W. Bush only 43 days after the September 11th attacks. Its main purpose was to fight terrorism, and it did so by increasing the authority of U.S. law enforcement agencies to search telephone and email correspondence, medical and financial records, and eased restriction on foreign intelligence. It also made it easier to deport foreigners who were suspected of terrorism-related acts. The Patriot Act was passed in large margin by both the House and the Senate, making it, for the most part, a unanimous decision in Congress.

Among many complaints of the Patriot Act include, the weakening of civil liberties, which is in specific, the right to privacy which I explained in the previous article, an indefinite detaining of terrorism-suspected immigrants, searches in which the owner or occupant was not previously notified or asked for permission, and the overuse of "National Security Letters," which basically allowed the FBI to search private records without a court order. Obviously enough, several Federal Courts have ruled the provisions in the Patriot Act unconstitutional.

In my thoughts, those who had the wherewithal to oppose this act before it came to pass were the smart ones. Now, Congress is trying to make up for its mistakes as we have seen with them trying to put the blame on the Bush administration and the telecoms themselves. However, a law has never come to pass which Congress has not voted and given its permission. Therefore, my previous article about the telecoms may have been somewhat biased. Congress has nowhere else to put the blame on but themselves, for if it were not for their "unanimous" decision, the Patriot Act would have ceased to exist. I understand the panic post September 11th, but I always have to wonder if this wasn't used as an excuse to make legal what the FBI and government law enforcement agencies have been doing for quite some time in a "hush hush" illegal sort of manner.

Not only does the Patriot Act clearly support racism, but it also makes our country, which is classically known as the"melting pot," appear as no better than a mild form of the Nazi Regime. A picture of George W. Bush with a swastika on his chest comes to mind. Although there have been several "reauthorization acts" to try and nullify some of the provisions set forth by the Patriot Act, no clear end to the Patriot Act has been established as of yet. We are still all in danger of privacy infringement, yet most of us would never know if had actually happened thanks to the Patriot Act.

My hope, is that the Patriot Act will find its CLEAR end sometime soon. Stay posted, and if you would like to read up on the Patriot Act and understand it in its entirety go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act.