Patriot Act: Is It Really Protecting Us?
Before the deciding to join the fight in the “War on Terror,” Americans faced themselves at a crossroads. On one hand, we knew something had to be done about the various terrorist attacks that seemed to be popping up (mainly) on the East Coast after 9/11, but how many rights and liberties were we willing to give up in order to ensure safety? In 2020, almost two decades after the integration of the Patriot Act within the United States, we have yet to see how it has been beneficial for national security on a nationwide scale. Since 2001, the Patriot Act has resulted in ONE exposed linked between someone in America and a terrorist organization outside of American soil. Most other convictions or evidence that has been picked up on has been a result of other people catching on to the situation at hand. Additionally, most don’t know that the Patriot Act had already been drafted before the attacks on and following September 11th due to the rising tensions between the U.S and Al Qaeda, but the tragedy provided a silver lining for lawmakers to have this legislation passed.
In 2013, American whistleblower Edward Snowden released classified documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) while he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These documents revealed that there was a gross abuse of power occurring within these agencies that are supposed to be using that power to protect us, not against us. 7 years later in September 2020, it has been revealed that leaders from these agencies has lied under oath in order to protect classified information from the respective agencies that would have uncovered the violations done on American’s privacy rights. What’s crazy about the whole thing is that it is all legal under the Patriot Act.
So what has the Patriot Act REALLY done? Apart from allowing the government to spy on its citizens, it has also had negative effects within the Muslim American community along with other Americans being natives of Eastern European regions. Even to this day, unfortunately, these people deal with the constant harassment and stereotypes that America has generated via generalization onto them.
