With the rising threat of terrorism throughout the world, governments have put measures in place to ensure that they curb any act of terrorism in their countries. The states have the sole responsibility of providing that their citizens and the visitors who are within their borders are safe. The measures are meant to shield the citizens and other people who live within the boundaries of the country from any acts of terror that may occur and any other criminal acts. In the United States of America, the Department of Justice has a responsibility of ensuring that it prevents any terror attacks in the future, this means that the department has to come up with ways if ensuring that it protects the citizens of the United States of America from such attacks ( Puar & Rai, 2002) . Some of the measures that have been in place are the enactment of intelligence acts that will ensure that sufficient information is provided regarding any terrorist threat and criminal laws, the data has to be acted upon swiftly to ensure that any threat to human life is curbed. To provide proper guidelines on how the intelligence can be obtained and how it can be used, the government of the United States of America has enacted three intelligence legislation. The legislation is; The National Security Act of 1947, The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and The United States Patriot Act ( Stevenson, 2008) . The acts are put in place to ensure that accurate and helpful intelligence information is collected to enable the various security organs in the country to deal with any threat of terrorism that may arise. In this paper, the legislation will be discussed and their relationships. The United States of America Patriot Act was enacted to ensure that liberty and life of the people in the United States of America are preserved. The Act was passed after the September 11, 2001, terror attack and has since been seen as one of the critical legislation that has helped in ensuring that the lives of the people of the United States of America are preserved, especially the innocent citizens ( Banks, 2009) . The bill plays a significant role in providing that the citizens of the United States of America are shielded from the dangers of global terror threats. Just like the other intelligence legislation, the Act ensures that there is sufficient and accurate information that can be used in curbing terror attacks on innocent citizens of the United States of America. The Act was passed by the Congress with the aim of helping the law enforcement agencies and offering them new tools that will help them in the fight against terrorism. Through the United States of America Patriot Act, investigators are given the authority to use the available tools to ensure that they fight any form of organized crime and the trafficking of drugs. The security organs were provided with the power to use the already existing tools to fight terror, for instance, the FBI could use the wiretap used in fighting organized crimes to fight terrorism ( Stevenson, 2008) . Under this authorization, the law enforcement organs could also be able to use the available surveillance against the rising crimes of terror. Before the enactment of this Act, the law enforcers only used these systems to fight crimes such as drug trafficking. The Act also allowed the security agencies to obtain permissions to use the available tools to track and detect the international terrorists who are trained ( Banks, 2009) . Before the Act was passed, the wiretap techniques were only used on drug dealers and other organized criminal group members, and the law did not have a provision of allowing the wiretaps to be used on the sophisticated terrorists who had found ways of evading the security traps ( Puar & Rai, 2002) . With the enactment of this law, the security agencies are allowed to obtain court orders to use the wiretaps to follow the trained and sophisticated international or local terrorists. The enactment of this Act allowed the security agencies to conduct investigations on the suspected terrorists even without their consent. In many occasions when the criminals are tipped off about the investigations against them, they take several actions that are aimed at ensuring that they evade arrest. In some cases, they can kill or intimidate the witnesses, destroy any form of evidence that may be used against them, stop interacting with their criminal associates or even flee. This Act allows the security agencies to commence investigations against a suspected terrorist even without notifying him or her ( Puar & Rai, 2002) . Such methods have been used in the past against criminal groups and drug deals and have proven to be helpful in fighting these crimes, now they are being enacted in the fight against terrorism to ensure that terrorists are nabbed. With the help of this legislation, federal agents can be granted a warrant by the courts to obtain the business records of a suspected terrorist in cases that involve the national security ( Banks, 2009) . Observations of these business records allow the investigators to develop crucial links that can be used to ensure that the guilty terrorists are arrested and that the lives of the innocent citizens are preserved. Before the legislation was passed, the federal agents could not receive this information. The Act also ensured that there were proper coordination and sharing of information between the agencies of the government, this allowed them to create useful links and leads that helped in capturing the terrorists. The state security agencies could be having different types of information regarding a terror threat to national security ( Stevenson, 2008) . Sharing of this information meant that the government security authorities could be able to link their pieces of information and be able to easily find the links that they might be missing in the pieces of information that they have. The terrorists have also advanced in the techniques they use advanced technological methods to attack other countries. Through this Act, the laws against terrorism were updated so that they could reflect the new technological advances and also the new forms of threats ( Banks, 2009) . The Act also introduced other measures that were used in the fight against terrorism. Apart from increasing the penalties of those who were found committing acts of terror, the Act introduced penalties for those who were found harboring terrorists, enhanced the number of the penalties for conspiracies and also introduced the punishments for the bioterrorists ( Puar & Rai, 2002) . This Act can be seen to be one of the most successful Acts because it has been able to prevent many catastrophic acts of terrorism in the country. Since the law of September 11, 2001, the Act has been able to provide the security apparatus with the much-needed tools to fight terror. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is another piece of legislation that is aimed at fighting terrorism and any criminal acts so the lives of the innocent Americans can be preserved. Just like the United States of America Patriots Act, the legislation was formed to ensure that the security agencies in the country are provided with the required tools to fight against terrorism. The Foreign Surveillance Act is established under the United States of America federal law, and it outlines the procedures that have to be followed in the electronic and physical surveillance systems available ( Stevenson, 2008) . The Act also describes the processes that can be observed in the surveillance of data between the agents of the foreign powers and the international powers themselves in cases of suspected terrorism or espionage. The legislation provided for the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, this is the court that is responsible for offering warrants to the intelligence agencies and the federal law enforcers on the surveillance requests ( Banks, 2009) . The legislation was passed and enacted in the year 1978, however, after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, the law has been under constant amendments so that it can suit the current security needs. Under this law, just like the United States of America Patriots Act, several provisions are meant to ensure that security agencies have the intelligence and the tools required to fight terrorism and preserve the liberty and lives of innocent Americans. One of the provisions that are provided by this Act is the electronic surveillance. The legislation allows electronic monitoring to take place in two different scenarios. One of the permitted situations is that electronic surveillance can happen without a court order ( Puar & Rai, 2002) . Through the attorney general, the president can authorize for electronic surveillance to be conducted without a court order. However, this is for a limited period, the electronic monitoring without a court order can only occur for one year. The information collected under this type of surveillance should not also touch on any American citizen, it must solely be from the foreign powers ( Stevenson, 2008) . The information that is collected under this type of surveillance is only supposed to protect the innocent citizens of the United States of America from a potential or actual grave international terrorism act or sabotage. According to the definition of this Act, foreign powers refers to any faction that belongs to a foreign country, and that does not have a substantial number of the United States of America citizens ( Puar & Rai, 2002) . Foreign powers can also be defined as a foreign country. If the information about a citizen of the United States of America has to be collected, the identity of the person has to be sealed. If the communication details of the citizens have to be surveyed, they should not be surveyed for more than 72 years without a court order.
There is also electronic surveillance that happens with a court order. This is when the government seeks a court order through the established FISA court so that they can get the permission to conduct electronic surveillance ( Stevenson, 2008) . The court has to find a probable reason for allowing the government to conduct the electronic surveillance. The government must also show that the electronic surveillance is done on foreign powers or foreign agents and if the surveillance targets the citizens or a citizen of the United States of America, the government must show that the minimization requirements are met. The court offers orders for this kind of surveillance to be undertaken for 90 days. However, the orders can be extended up to 120 days, and in some cases, it can be extended up to one year. The FISA court that is developed under this Act is used to offer guidance on how the Act should be implemented. The court also handles all the requests that on surveillance warrants by the security organs such as the FBI ( Banks, 2009) . The warrants are offered to allow for the surveillance of foreign intelligence agents that work inside the country. If the court denies the requests of offering a surveillance request, the security agencies may appeal to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. The court has its meetings in secret and only announces the decisions that it has reached ( Stevenson, 2008) . The surveillance warrants can be either be accepted or denied, and the security agencies have to follow the directives that are offered by this court. The act also allows for physical searches to be conducted. However, this should only be applied to the premises of foreign powers. The procedures that are used in carrying out the searches are similar to those applied in the electronic surveillance. Ever since the Act was passed a lot of changes have been taking place, technology has been advanced regarding communications and also technologies have been advancing ( Banks, 2009) . Because of these changes being experienced, the legislation has been passed through several amendments so that it can accommodate these changes.
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Just like the United States of America Patriots Act, the legislation ensures that the security organs are provided with the necessary tools and authorizations to ensure that they fight the threat of terrorism and also to ensure that they preserve the liberties and the lives of the American people. Another intelligence Act of that is enacted in the United States of America is the National Security Act of 1947 ( Stevenson, 2008) . The legislation is seen as a major restructuring of the security system in the United States of America. The military systems and the intelligence systems of the United States of America were restructured after the occurrence of World War II. The legislation merged the Department of War, this department was later renamed to the Department of the Army and the Department of the Navy and created the National Military Establishment. The enactment of the Act also ensured that there was the creation of the Department of the Airforce in the United States of America. The legislation also established the development of the National Security Council and the CIA, (Central Intelligence Agency) The National Security Council was established so that it could offer the president advice on the military policies for both foreign and national military and intelligence services. The council in this legislation was also supposed to ensure that it fosters proper working relationships between the various organs in the security sector, especially the military and the intelligence systems ( Stevenson, 2008) . The cooperation of the agencies ensures that the people of the United States of America are protected from any foreign attacks or acts of terror. Sharing intelligence with the military will make the military action on the data and thwart an act of terrorism that could have had happened in the country.
The primary responsibility of the United States of America is to protect the liberty and lives of its citizens. There have been increased terror attack threats and also other attacks. To ensure that the risks are thwarted and that the rights and lives of the innocent Americans are preserved, the government enacted the intelligence Acts ( Puar & Rai, 2002) . The intelligence Acts in the United States of America are meant to ensure that the citizens are protected from any attack. All of the legislation is developed to ensure that the security agencies and other people who are involved in the security sector do their work appropriately by protecting the liberty of the people of United States of America ( Stevenson, 2008) . The incorporation of these intelligence legislations will ensure that the security agencies work together and that they provide that they work on any intelligence information that they get. The Acts are aimed at ensuring that there is efficient sharing of information between the security agencies, and they help each other in making the country safe.
References
Puar, J. K., & Rai, A. (2002). Monster, terrorist, fag: The war on terrorism and the production of docile patriots. Social Text , 20 (3), 117-148.
Banks, W. C. (2009). Programmatic surveillance and FISA: Of needles in haystacks. Tex. L. Rev. , 88 , 1633.
Stevenson, C. A. (2008). Underlying assumptions of the National Security Act of 1947. Joint Force Quarterly , 48 (1), 129-133.
