At 9:02am on April 19, 1995 a major explosion destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 168 men, women, children lost their lives. This act was carried out by what have become known as “homegrown” terrorists. In the autumn of 2000, just prior to the general Presidential elections, the U.S.S. Cole was refueling in the harbor of Aden, Yemen when, at 11:18 am local time, she was attacked by a small boat. The boat, whose crew was linked to the Al Qaida terrorist network, exploded on the Cole’s port side killing seventeen sailors and opening at forty-foot by forty-foot hole in the Cole’s hull. Again, Americans were shocked. Less than a year later, on September 11, 2001 America changed forever. Two passenger airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City. A third flight crashes into the Pentagon and yet one more crashes in a Pennsylvania meadow.
President George W. Bush, taking up the responsibility placed upon him by Article II of the Constitution, announced to the world that America and its allies were now engaged in a war on terror. He began to label other countries, including North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as members of an “Axis of Evil,” and accused them of sponsoring terrorists. Sweeping governmental changes began to take place. The Department of Homeland security was created and it consolidated several governmental departments under its aegis. The most controversial governmental change that has occurred as a result of these terrorist attacks is the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act.
The U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, is intended to stop or limit domestic acts of terrorism. To achieve this, the Act changes the way the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) operate in relation to United States citizens[1] and it provides the Executive Branch with a nearly unchecked authority with which to execute its constitutional obligation to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. [2]” For instance, Sections 209 – 210 of the Act call for the Surveillance of electronic and voice mail communications[3], both of which were widely used by the hijackers on September 11th. Another example is found in sections 206 – 207, 214, and 216, which allow for expanded use of roving wiretaps, pen registers and trap and trace devices[4] to track terror suspects across the globe and across the United States. Finally, Section 802 of the Act defines domestic terrorism, terror acts carried out within the borders of the United States, as “…acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of criminal laws… [if]…they appear to be intended…to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.[5]” The fundamental civil rights issue with this Act is that lawful United States citizens, resident aliens, and political opposition groups are not immune to, nor are they allowed to be aware of, any investigation of themselves, and if they are found to be an “enemy combatant” that person is likely to be held indefinitely and without communication with his or her lawyers
[1] Government Information Quarterly 20 (2003) 295—314
[2] United States Constitution Article II
