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Usa Patriot Act Of 2001

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History Of The Patriot Act

Here’s Why the Patriot Act Is So Controversial | History

The history of the USA PATRIOT Act involved many parties who opposed and supported the legislation, which was proposed, enacted and signed into law 45 days after the in 2001. The USA PATRIOT Act, though approved by large majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative, was controversial, and parts of the law were invalidated or modified by successful legal challenges over constitutional infringements to civil liberties. The Act had several sunset provisions, most reauthorized by the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act. Both reauthorizations incorporated amendments to the original USA PATRIOT Act, and other federal laws.

In June, the Select Committee on Intelligence proposed legislation to the House on July 21 as the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005. It repealed the sunset date for surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act in other words, it would have made those sections permanent. A number of amendments were also proposed and passed. The House responded on September 11 that they unanimously disagreed with the Senate amendment, and agreed to a conference. One provision struck down was the so-called “sneak and peek” provisions of the Patriot Act. These were struck down after the FBI wrongfully used the provision to arrest Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield on suspicions that he had been involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Illegal Money Transmitting Businesses

Section 373 changes the definition of an “unlicensed money transmitting business” to eliminate the need to prove that the business knowingly operated without a license. In addition, the definition includes anyone who fails to register as a money transmitter with FinCEN. As noted above, any agent of a licensed foreign transmittal agency who transmits money outside of the agent agreement with the licensee will be deemed to be operating an illegal and unlicensed money transmitting business for the purpose of G.L. c. 169 and 18 U.S.C. 1960.

Why Are Some Parts Of The Patriot Act Expiring

Back when the Patriot Act was first being debated, Sen. Ron Wyden was worried about some of the powers the Patriot Act was giving the federal government. He voted for the bill, but not before adding a five-year countdown clock to three of the sketchiest-looking provisions. After five years, if Congress hadn’t passed a new law renewing the programs, they would “sunset.” Wyden hoped “these provisions would be more thoughtfully debated at a later, less panicked time.”


Waiting for a less panicked time.

In 2006, there was a little more “thoughtful debate” including a filibuster, led by Feingold, that caused senators to tweak the surveillance provisions slightly. By 2011, though, Ron Wyden was on the Senate floor warning that there was a “secret Patriot Act”: that the federal government secretly believed the law allowed it to conduct way more surveillance of Americans than people assumed. Despite Wyden’s warnings, Congress passed a four-year extension which reset the countdown clock for May 31, 2015.

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Shown Here: Passed House Without Amendment

Title I: Enhancing Domestic Security Against Terrorism

Expresses the sense of Congress that: the civil rights and liberties of all Americans, including Arab Americans, must be protected, and that every effort must be taken to preserve their safety any acts of violence or discrimination against any Americans be condemned and the Nation is called upon to recognize the patriotism of fellow citizens from all ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.


Requires the Director of the U.S. Secret Service to take actions to develop a national network of electronic crime task forces throughout the United States to prevent, detect, and investigate various forms of electronic crimes, including potential terrorist attacks against critical infrastructure and financial payment systems.

Modifies provisions relating to presidential authority under the International Emergency Powers Act to: authorize the President, when the United States is engaged in armed hostilities or has been attacked by a foreign country or foreign nationals, to confiscate any property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of a foreign person, organization, or country that he determines has planned, authorized, aided, or engaged in such hostilities or attacks and provide that, in any judicial review of a determination made under such provisions, if the determination was based on classified information such information may be submitted to the reviewing court ex parte and in camera.

Prevention Of Consulate Shopping

The Patriot Act  The 9/11 Lesson

The U.S. Secretary of State was required to determine whether consulate shopping was a problem, which is the practice of applying for visas at different consulate posts in the hope of finding one that will be more sympathetic to the applicant and thus approve the visa. Section 418 of the Patriot Act required the Secretary to report back to Congress if it was. No report was ever filed.

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How Many People Were Killed In The September 11 Attacks

The exact number of victimsparticularly the number of those killed at the World Trade Centeris not definitively known. However, the official death toll, after numerous revisions and not including the 19 terrorists, was set at 2,977 people. At the World Trade Center in New York City, 2,753 people died, of whom 343 were firefighters. The death toll at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., was 184, and 40 individuals died outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.


Lead Up To Reauthorization

By now the sunsets in the Patriot Act were getting closer to expiring. The Bush administration had been campaigning for the reauthorization of the Act for some time, with the President speaking about the Act in his 2004 State of the Union Address, where he said that,

Inside the United States, where the began, we must continue to give our homeland security and law enforcement personnel every tool they need to defend us. And one of those essential tools is the Patriot Act, which allows federal law enforcement to better share information, to track terrorists, to disrupt their cells, and to seize their assets. For years, we have used similar provisions to catch embezzlers and drug traffickers. If these methods are good for hunting criminals, they are even more important for hunting terrorists.Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year. The terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule. Our law enforcement needs this vital legislation to protect our citizens. You need to renew the Patriot Act.

2004 United States State of the Union Address, United States President George W. Bush.

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Cd 2: 20th Anniversary Of The Patriot Act

The Patriot Act: A law that is still governing us after 20 years despite being almost universally hated. In this episode, we take a close look at the lesser known parts of the Patriot Act that became permanent immediately, examine the status of the few provisions that had to be reauthorized over the years, find out how the law was crafted in the first place, and see what happened to the members of Congress who voted for this rights-destroying legislation.

What To Expect For The Patriot Act Reauthorization

Patriot Games — The Patriot Act in Review

By| Filed under |February 11, 2020

Several controversial provisions of the PATRIOT Actthe law that vastly expanded national security surveillance in the wake of the September 11 attacksare set to expire on March 15 unless Congress passes a new bill reauthorizing them. Congress should only reauthorize these provisions if it uses this opportunity to pass much-needed reforms to protect Americans privacy rights from improper surveillance.


Over the last four decades, the governments national security surveillance powers have increased significantly whenever Congress passes a new law to further this expansion, as it did with the PATRIOT Act, its building onto FISA.

As we have previously detailed, the history of PATRIOT Act surveillance is one of unprecedented violations of Americans civil liberties. And many of the most egregious misuses of the PATRIOT Act stem from systemic dysfunction throughout various aspects of the intelligence community in how national security surveillance as a whole operates.

Heres what you need to know about national security surveillance, what to expect during the upcoming reauthorization debate, and what policies will be most important when Congress proposes new legislation.

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Title Viii: Terrorism Criminal Law

Title VIII alters the definitions of terrorism and establishes or re-defines rules with which to deal with it. It redefined the term “domestic terrorism” to broadly include mass destruction as well as assassination or kidnapping as a terrorist activity. The definition also encompasses activities that are “dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State” and are intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion,” or are undertaken “to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping” while in the jurisdiction of the United States.Terrorism is also included in the definition of racketeering.Terms relating to cyber-terrorism are also redefined, including the term “protected computer,” “damage,” “conviction,” “person,” and “loss.”

Cooperative Efforts To Deter Money Laundering

Under Section 314, the Secretary of the Treasury must promulgate regulations by February 23, 2002 to encourage cooperation among financial institutions, their regulators, and law enforcement officials. The purpose is to help provide financial institutions with information regarding suspected terrorist or money laundering activity. The regulations may require each financial institution to designate one or more individuals to receive such information and may establish procedures for the protection of such information.


Effective immediately, after giving notice to the Secretary of the Treasury, two or more financial institutions may share information “regarding individuals, entities, organizations, and countries suspected of possible terrorist or money laundering activities.” Any financial institution or association of financial institutions that shares such information will not be considered in violation of the privacy provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

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Why Does It Matter To Libraries

Libraries provide information on all kinds of subjects and from all perspectives to their communities this includes access to government information. Libraries also fight for civil liberties, including freedom of expression and privacy. Libraries are key sources of information for their communities.All of these things are threatened by the power that the USA PATRIOT Act gives to law enforcement authorities.

The USA PATRIOT Act was reauthorized in March 2006. What can you do next? Visit the Bill of Rights Defense Commitee’s page on Resources for Defending Civil Liberties for guidelines.The PATRIOT reauthorization legislation signed into law by President Bush on March 9, 2006 contains some changes from the original USA PATRIOT Act.

Sunsets:A sunset of December 31, 2009 was established for Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.


In Support Of Research And Reporting On The Disparate Use And Impact Of Fisa

FERPA

There are significant instances of surveillance abuse focused on certain racial and religious groups under the guise of guarding national security.

Roving wiretaps give the government the authority to issue one surveillance order for a target that is intermittently using multiple communications identifiers. For example, the FBI could use a roving wiretap to be able to surveil a target jumping between different phone numbers by using burner phones. This is a logical tool for intelligence agencies to want, but it does raise concerns about whether targets will always be properly designated.

The lone wolf provision, which was added to FISA as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, allows the government to monitor a foreign national who is suspected of aiding international terrorism but is not connected to a terrorist organization. This combination may sound unlikely, and in fact, to the best of our knowledge, the provision has never been used.

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Why Do These Provisions Have Sunsets

Sunset clauses give Congress a built-in mechanism to periodically assess whether provisions of laws like the PATRIOT Act are working as intended, and to make changes if lawmakers deem it necessary. For surveillance law, sunsets create checkpoints where the executive branch needs to show Congress that it hasnt misused its new surveillance power, or that technical issues and advances havent dramatically changed what the authority means. Given the litany of major problems that the PATRIOT Act has enabled, its easy to see the value of sunsets for this sort of law.


Sunsets have also proven useful in achieving reforms. When the three provisions discussed above were about to expire in 2015, lawmakers refused to extend them without reforms. This helped Congress pass the USA FREEDOM Act, which instituted a number of reforms to protect privacy, prohibited nationwide bulk collection of phone records, and created the authority for the call detail records program. Now we have a chance to demand additional reforms, and fix problems that have developed over the last few years.

Have Any Of These Provisions Actually Prevented Terrorist Attacks

The Obama administration says that Section 215, in particular, has been extremely helpful in terrorism investigations. But when the government’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board reviewed the program in January 2014, that is … not what it found :

There’s less information about the other two provisions. Section 207, for example the “lone wolf” program has apparently never even been used.

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What Is The Project On Government Oversight Doing To Push For Reform

Our main priority is to ensure that Congress passes a strong reform bill to protect privacy rights and prevent abuse of surveillance powers. Well be working with a coalition of advocates and experts to persuade Congress to act, and making sure that the legislative language accomplishes what it purports to.


The recently introduced Safeguarding Americans Private Records Act is a bipartisan bill that includes many of the key improvements to FISA weve been pushing for. Weve been campaigning for years to change the PATRIOT Act, and improve privacy protections in FISA as a whole. With the passage of the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015, our work helped roll back overbroad surveillance but that law was a step forward, not a complete solution. Well be continuing to work with congressional offices to highlight the risks that overbroad surveillance poses, and how to fix them. And, as the PATRIOT Act reauthorization deadline approaches, we plan to make sure lawmakers take another big step in protecting us from unchecked and excessive surveillance.

What Exactly Is The Patriot Act And How Did It Affect The Rules Governing National Security Surveillance

USA Patriot Act of 2001 Section 802

The PATRIOT Act was passed by Congress and subsequently signed into law by President George W. Bush in October 2001. The law expanded national security surveillance and also brought about a range of institutional changes, such as facilitating greater coordination between government agencies. While some elements of the law were intended to solve the types of problems that preceded the September 11 attacks, many others were simply from the executive branchs long-standing wish list of ways to increase its surveillance powers. Congress passed the PATRIOT Act with little debate and little scrutiny of some of the bills problematic provisions, with insufficient consideration to how broadly parts of it could be used.

The PATRIOT Act amended a preexisting law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, governing all foreign intelligence and national security surveillance authorized by Congress . That law, commonly known by its acronym, FISA, was passed in 1978 and created the authority for the government to obtain warrants to surveil individual targets based on probable cause that they are an agent of a foreign power. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also known as the FISA Court, which was also created as part of the law, approves these warrants.

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Advantages Of The Usa Patriot Act

The Act has been a highly polarizing national security initiative since President George W. Bush signed the bill into law a month after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Advocates feel the Act has made anti-terrorism efforts more streamlined, efficient, and effective.


Federal agents use roving wiretaps while tracking international terrorists trained to avoid surveillance by rapidly changing locations and communication devices. A reasonable delay in notifying terrorist suspects of a search warrant gives law enforcement time to identify the criminals associates, eliminate immediate community threats, and coordinate the arrests of individuals without first tipping them off.

Because law enforcement has more unity through multiple communication channels, investigating officers can act quickly before a suspected attack is completed. Surveillance is easier because companies have a clear definition of who investigates terrorist activities. Faster inquiries are made about suspicious activities, strengthening terrorism prevention. Increased wiretapping lets investigators listen to conversations potentially threatening to national security.

Details Of The Patriot Act

According to the Department of Justice, the Patriot Act simply expanded the application of tools already being used against drug dealers and organized crime. The act aimed to improve homeland security by:

  • allowing law enforcement to use surveillance and wiretapping to investigate terror-related crimes
  • allowing federal agents to request court permission to use roving wiretaps to track a specific terrorist suspect
  • allowing delayed notification search warrants to prevent a terrorist from learning they are a suspect
  • allowing federal agents to seek federal court permission to obtain bank records and business records to aid in national security terror investigations and prevent money laundering for terrorism financing
  • improving information and intelligence sharing between government agencies
  • providing tougher penalties for convicted terrorists and those who harbor them
  • allowing search warrants to be obtained in any district where terror-related activity occurs, no matter where the warrant is executed
  • ending the statute of limitations for certain terror-related crimes
  • making it harder for aliens involved in terrorist activities to enter the United States
  • providing aid to terrorism victims and public safety officers involved in investigating or preventing terrorism or responding to terrorist attacks

Many of the Patriot Acts requirements were slated to expire in 2005. Whether to renew the act was passionately argued in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

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