The USA Patriot Act
Natalie Ketchum
Recognizing the Problem
The patriot act was created in order to protect u.s. citizens from terrorist attacks. On September 11th, 2001 the Al-Qaeda, lead by Osama Bin Laden, high jacked four airliner planes to be flown into buildings as suicide attacks. This event led many questions as to why the terrorist were able to do such a thing, and how were we so defenseless against this terrible attack?
Formulating the policy
Jim Sensenbrenner
Adopting the Policy
Implementing the Policy
The Patriot Act has helped law enforcement officials apprehend hundreds of suspects, and it isn't just one provision of the act that has proved useful. For instance, the surveillance provision was used successfully in the Portland Seven investigation, which may well have prevented an attack on synagogues and Jewish schools. And while new information is still coming to light about the three recent alleged plots, it is very likely that Patriot Act provisions played major roles stopping at least one of the plans.