Human Rights, Terrorism and Counter-terrorism

Running head: THREATS OF TERRORISM
Threats of Terrorism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THREATS OF TERRORISM
Question 1:
The Patriot Act has been passed by the Congress for the purpose to showing response
towards the terrorist attacks which took place on 11th September, 2001. From the very beginning,
the objective of the Act was to strengthen the nature of the domestic security and at the same
time widen the powers of the agencies of law enforcement in order to reduce the acts of terrorism
("Introduction to Security (8th Edition), 2008). It is evident that, the Act has been allowing the
officials of federal government greater authority in tracking and intercepting communications as
well. As a result of this, the Secretary of the Treasury has been entrusted with regulatory powers
in order to combat corruptions of the financial institutions of US involved in the process of
money laundering (Sheppard, 2008). In this regard, it is important to categorize the purposes of
the Patriot Act for the purpose of deterring and reducing terrorism in the United States and all
around the world. The purposes of the Patriot Act can be summarized as-
I. Strengthening measures on the part of U.S for the purpose of preventing, detecting and at
the same time prosecuting the processes of international money laundering and financial
terrorism.
II. To involve in the process of special scrutiny foreign jurisdictions, financial institutions of
foreign countries and certain classes of international transactions and accounting types
that are susceptible to various criminal abuses.
III. To investigate in detail the relevant and underlying elements of the financial service
industry for the purpose of reporting potential money laundering.
IV. Strengthening measures for the purpose of preventing the utilization of the U.S. financial
system in order to gain personal interest by corrupting the foreign officials. In regard to

2THREATS OF TERRORISM
this, it has facilitated the reimbursement of the stolen assets to the citizens of the country
to whom the assets actually belonged.
In spite of several attempts on the part of the Patriot Act, it faced various criticisms. Firstly,
the Act was declared to be unconstitutional and unethical by many critics. As a result of it, the
implementations on the part of the federal government did not receive assistance from the major
cities (Halibozek, Jones & Kovacich, 2018). Secondly, criticism was faced regarding the fact
that, the power of the executive was unfairly expanded by the Act which in turn has created
discrepancies in the process of crucial checks and balances (Theissen & Phil, 2017). Thirdly, the
most vital criticism faced by the Patriot Act was in regard to the provisions of Section 215 of the
Act. The right to privacy and freedom as a result of unreasonable investigation and seizures
caused infringement. This is due to the reason that most of the seizures were conducted without
notification. Fourthly, the Act faced major criticism in regard to the presence of controversial
provisions concerning electronic surveillance of the individuals threatening the natural security
of the country to the large extent (Halibozek, Jones & Kovacich, 2018). However, it is
noteworthy to mention here that, such practice was not initiated by the Act because surveillance
methods and practices have been established by the Foreign Surveillance Act (FISA).
The validity of the abovementioned criticisms can be measured in this regard. It is
worthwhile to refer here that, the Patriot Act from the very beginning emphasized on the
investigation of potential terrorists other than spying upon the innocent people of America
(Welch, 2015). However, the nature of the Patriot Act was such that it never paid attention on
reducing the activities of potential terrorists (FEMA.gov", 2018). It is worth noting that, the
controversial provisions depicted in the Act were considered to be the same expansions of the
law enforcement authorities which has been sought by the officials of the State and the federal