The United States Patriot Act Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The United States Patriot Act - Term Paper Example The United States Patriot Act The law was developed to equip United States security organs with enough teeth to carry out their investigatory role and that of protection of America. The main purpose On October 26 2001, the then president of the United States of America George Washington Bush signed the USA Patriot bill into law. As consequence of this, the act aimed at strengthening the measures that were aimed at preventing, detecting, and prosecuting the money launders and those who finance terrorism. Secondly, the act was developed to subject certain foreign financial institutions to scrutiny and analyze certain transactions or some accounts are prone to criminal abuse. Finally, the Act was designed to back the development of anti-money laundering units in the country, and in other countries. In addition, the act was enacted with the objective of strengthening the processes of stopping or averting the usage of the United States financial system by unethical individuals and suspected criminals in other countries and aids the return of stolen money back. Historical perspective This act is the culmination of very many centuries of development of laws and other historical and political happenings that have shaped the domestic security situations in America. The development of this act can be traced back to 1798, when the alien and sedition Act was passed, this was developed in order to make it illegal for anybody to criticize the American president. The act gave the president immense powers to deport anybody and especially aliens whom were considered to risky to the American people and American property. At the beginning of the civil war of America, the then president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln issued a notice to suspend the habeas corpus, this had the e ffect of providing the rioters and those who protested to be arrested and jailed without formal charges. At the height of World War 1, there were 75 foreigners believed to be German-American socialists who were denied certain mailing rights and privileges. The law also provided the security organs with the mantle to censor all forms of communication that was moving in and out of the country. After the bombing of the Pearl Harbor by the Japanese naval military, the supreme court of the United States upheld President Roosevelt executive order that led to the transfer of Japanese-Americans from the west coast, and this was in defense of the harbor bombing by the Japanese military. The patriot act: fulfilling the intended purpose The act has led to stifling of individual’s liberty, but in the face of all the terror acts and attempted terror on American soil, which issue is more fundamental, liberty or safety? The act has helped information sharing amongst different security organ s in the country, allowing greater cooperation and reducing bureaucracy. This information exchange has lead to laudable benefits in terms of operations of the different agencies tasked with collecting information and countering terrorism. This especially applied to the two federal security organs in the country, the FBI and the CIA, The act gave these two agencies more freedom and powers and in their collusion, they managed to set up strings of operations nabbing suspected terrorists and foiling their attempts and in addition, they have nabbed major money laundering rackets. Since the enactment, of the act there has not been any reported large-scale terror attack on the United States to the magnitude of the September 11 2001 attack. The critics of the Acts point towards how the Act has