The Patriot Act was established as a National Defense Policy and strategy, to promote national security (Brooks, 2012) . It contains provisions that assist in counterterrorism strategies. These provisions include:
Title II. Enhanced surveillance procedures
Title III. Money laundering
Title IV. Border protection ("Provisions of the Patriot Act – Civil Rights", 2020)
The first provision helps in counterterrorism efforts by enhancing surveillance procedures that help detect terrorism activities. This is to help them collect intelligence on terrorist groups and suspects (Lind, 2020) . The provision supports investigations of organizations suspected of funding terrorist groups. Money laundering is alleged to be one of the ways terrorist group acquire their funding, and this provision promotes investigations on this. The security agency most likely to benefit from this provision is the Federal Bureau of Investigations because investigation and data analysis are their specialties.
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The second provision has established strict international banking rules to prevent money laundering. It has also developed good communication strategies between the law and financial institutions to encourage them to report suspected money laundering cases (Office of the Director of National Intelligence. n.d.) . The provision has seen an increase in the penalty for criminals charged with counterfeiting and currency smuggling. This provision is commonly used by the Bureau of Counterterrorism, working together with the Bureau of Economics and Business Affairs.
The third provision focuses on curbing corruption as a counterterrorism measure. It encourages investigations on foreign entities and persons suspected of corruption and stealing of public property. The provision also promotes peace by returning stolen property to their rightful owners. The CIA is most likely to be involved in this provision as they deal with foreign terrorism cases.
These provisions have brought into question constitutional issues because there have been many court complains about the method used following the Patriot Act. Such controversies include the National Security Letter program, which allows the government to demand communication records from telecom companies without approval (Lind, 2020) . The US court has addressed some privacy concerns caused by the Patriot Act provisions. The agencies allow invasion of privacy by seizing the suspects' phone records, sometimes without any warrant.
References
Brooks, B. (2012). Law Enforcement's Role in US Counterterrorism Strategy. The Police Journal , 1-13. doi: 10.1350/pojo.2010.83.0.480
Lind, D. (2020). Everyone's heard of the Patriot Act. Here's what it actually does. Retrieved 22 October 2020, from https://www.vox.com/2015/6/2/8701499/patriot-act-explain
Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (n.d.). USA Patriot Act. https://www.dni.gov/index.php/who-we-are/organizations/ise/ise-archive/ise-additional-resources/2116-usa-patriot-act
Provisions of the Patriot Act – Civil Rights. (2020). Retrieved 28 October 2020, from https://civilrights.uslegal.com/usa-patriot-act/provisions-of-the-patriot-act/#:~:text=%20The%20important%20provisions%20of%20the%20patriot%20act,changes%207%20Title%20IX%3A%20Improved%20intelligence%20More%20
