USA Patriot Act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

USA Patriot Act - Research Paper Example Although the act has found its share of critics but it is also acclaimed that the act is a success in its own way. Patriot Act was enacted upon by the congress by enormous, bipartisan margin, which assisted the Federal officials with new ways to protect the nation from terrorist activities. The act was essentially passed with almost negligible opposition by both the senate and the house. It was also significantly supported by members throughout the political world. The Patriot Act permits the investigators to incorporate the tools that were already present to investigate and solve the problem of organized crime and drug trafficking. Amongst the tools that are highlighted in the act, has long been practiced to counter organized crime, and drug trafficking. It was also reviewed and approved by the courts. As Biden acknowledges, â€Å"the FBI could get a wiretap to investigate the mafia, but they could not get one to investigate terrorists. The act permits law enforcement to use the procedure of â€Å"surveillance† to reduce terror activities. As acknowledged originally by the department of justice, the act provides a number of essential suggestions to counter terrorist activities. Amongst them, one of the most primary and significant suggestion was the amendments to Federal surveillance laws. This law ensured the governance of capture and tracking of probable terrorists within the boundaries of the USA. The Federal law is comprised of a three tier system. This system was designed for serving two purposes, namely, ensuring the privacy of personal telephone, and computer communication, while assisting authorities to locate and essentially intercept criminal message (Doyle, 2002, p.5). Prior to the Patriot Act, courts could allow Federal officials to carry on electronic surveillances on petty criminals. The Federal agents could also get wiretaps to investigate into crimes that are frequently committed by terrorists . The act enabled the Federal investigators to accumulated information in all kinds of terrorist activities. The activities included the use of chemical weapons, the assassinations of Americans in America or abroad, and even financing terrorism (JUSTICE, n.d., p.1). The act permits the Federal agents to trace sophisticated terrorist, and trained to avoid detection. Since the past decades, the Federal officials have sought the help of â€Å"roving wiretaps† to solve or investigate petty crimes in the state. The usage of â€Å"roving wiretaps† can be certified a judge to apply to a terror suspect, not on a specific communicating device. This was done as foreign terrorists are sophisticated and effectively trained to escape the surveillance measures of the Federal officials. The section 216, of the Patriot Act permits the authorization of trap and traces devices, and also pen registers to be incorporated in tracing and acquiring information in the case of computer convers ations, as well as telephonic conversations. The usage of pen registers and trace devices was once restricted to only judicial districts were it was permitted to be