The Patriot Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

The Patriot Act - Essay Example It exposed weaknesses in the intelligence community which failed in its job to protect American interests by not being able to predict and prevent when or where the strikes will occur; they were not able to interpret correctly despite all the warnings, a failure of â€Å"connecting the dots.† This act is actually an acronym, which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) while Patriot stands for Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. This law has many pertinent provisions designed to fight terrorism but a primary aim was to strengthen law enforcement capabilities against any future terror attacks on America. The law likewise contained so-called â€Å"sunset† provisions designed to lapse after December 31, 2005 based on the assessment by security experts on the continued existence of terrorist threats. The paper will discuss the important provisions of the USA Patriot Act and the effects on civil liberties and personal freedoms. Among the provisions discussed will be concerning the regulation of financial transactions to deny the terrorists their sources of funding, the broadened discretionary authority of law enforcement and immigration officials to detain, deport, and try in courts these terror suspects, and the continued policy debates about this Act, among others. A consequence of the worst-ever terrorist attack on American soil caused the creation of a single government agency charged with protecting the country and its citizens. The Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002 and currently has about 240,000 federal employees in its payroll. This department is a unified, integrated cabinet-level agency tasked with the mission of protecting American citizens from attacks emanating from land, sea, air, and even in the cyber space (Department of Homeland Security, 2013, para. 1) such as prevention of hacking attempts. Americans now seriously take security precautions, together with the added