The paper will focus on examining the tools that are enacted in the United States to help fight against organized crime and terrorism in which diplomacy, criminal law, financial control, military force and intelligences are all critical components that need to work correlated and coordinated. The thesis of this paper is that in every counterterrorism toll beside the advantages there are many disadvantages and controversy present. The important documents accepted in the recent time regarding the counterterrorism will be examined with the main focus on the Patriot Act. The negative and positive sides of the use of wiretapping, metadata, NSA and collecting the data in countering the crimes and terrorism will be presented.
The counterterrorism has been defined as the use of tactics, practices, strategies and techniques that militaries, governments, police departments and corporations accept in order to fight against terrorist imputed and real acts and threats. In the United States various actors are directly and indirectly involved in the counterterrorism from the National Counterterrorism Center, CIA, FBI, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, with the creation of policies also White House, Department of Justice, Transportation Security Agency and possible involvement of regional and state authorities (Kraft & Marks, 2011). The importance of those actors is expressed also in the report of the Homeland Security (2015) of current terrorist threats to the United States. The environment has become more dynamic and dangerous with the diversification of terrorist actors. The new terrorist groups have been located with the new level of specialization and fragmentation among the largest groups. The Global Terrorism Database that has been collected the information on terrorism and the attacks from 1970 onward shows that the number of terrorist events around the world from 1970 to 2013 reached the number 125.000. The number of incidents has drastically grown from 2004 onward and with it also the number of casualties. The numbers for the United States are opposite with the trend of decreasing the number of casualties and incident after the seventies (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.). But does the spread of the terrorist perceived threat justify the violation of a citizen’s right to privacy?
Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism or Patriot Act, was passed in the year 2001 and provided new tools to fight against terrorism and was signed 45 days after the attack on 9/11. Many provisions of the act could serve as important tools in locating terrorist. With the Patriot Act the investigators gained more time in questioning the suspects before to be let go or charged, easier shared on information among the federal agencies, easy access to the private records such as emails, hospital and health records and financial information from banks (Lind & Rankin, 2015). The advantages of the Patriot Act were seen in its goals to deter and punish terrorist acts in the country and also on the global scale and to enhance the law enforcement tools. The positive thing was easier cooperation between the federal agencies since the cooperation is a good tactic to tackle the issue of terrorism. The law also made possible for easy enforce of money laundering and freezing the assets in order to disrupt the financing of terrorist organizations. There were reports of vast numbers of freeze assets and frozen account around the world with hundreds of suspected terrorists identified and tracked. Department of Justice states various other advantages of the Patriot Act since the Act limits domestic terrorism, it allows investigation and use of tools that were already available in the investigation of organized crime and drug trafficking, it facilitates the information sharing and cooperation, it is in accordance with the development of new threats and technologies and increases the penalties for terrorist crimes (Department of Justice, n.d.).
There were many concerns raised such as violations of people’s right to privacy. For the wiretapping with the Act there is no longer needed the court order for each and every phone on single bases. There were argument of unconstitutional overstep on the individual rights since the law is not clear about which phones can be tapped and which not, under the assumption of unlawful acts we could all be listen to and without the owner’s knowledge. It has broadened the government power and strengthened the penalties for certain offences and lowered the burden of proof in trails in criminal investigations. There were first used for targeting organized crime and terrorism, but have been spread to the prosecution of others. It permits grater surveillance in ordered to prevent the suspected terrorist and spies to damage the country. The Act is controversial because of expended authorization of National Security Letters which gives the FISA (top secret court created in 1978) authorization to request an electronic communication service, phone companies that need to provide the information about the subscribers and their activities. Prior such acts could be used only against persons that were directly suspected of terrorist activity (Lind & Rankin, 2015).
The metadata collection of phone records and emails advantages has been defended by the fact that at least 50 threats have been averted because of the gathered information and not just in the United States, but further research revealed there were more disadvantages than advantages in collecting the data and metadata. The collection of meta and big data is in counterterrorism important since the terrorism does not know the national or any other borders. With connecting different information the broader picture can be made that bring benefits to the counterterrorism efforts. With the big data and the development of technology the metadata becomes important in combating the cyber terrorism with the analysing vast amount of data through long periods of time that help to identify the vulnerabilities. The gathering of information is even more important since the international terrorism is on the rise and the United States remains in a state of armed conflict with many non-state actors that can pose a threat to the country (Buci et al, 2015).
The Patriot Act is connected with the National Security Agency – NSA, which main role is to prevent foreign adversaries gain the access to national classified security information and the recent controversial actions. With the sensitive data leaked into the media the mass surveillance and the methods of NSA work came into the light. Private American citizens, along with the foreign allies’ phone calls, emails, internet traffic and social connections were monitored and followed. Much of the disturbing data and information about the surveillance activities with the PRISM program were revealed by Edward Snowden. The program PRISM allowed the NSA access to the servers in the U.S. and could request the user data from companies that are compelled to cooperate and provide the information by law. The NSA shared the information and intelligence data with Tempora, which is a program that allows spy agencies to collect vast quantities of data from important global firms. Edward Snowden is dividing the public opinion and remains a controversial person that was charged under the “espionage act of theft of governmental property, unauthorized communication intelligence information to an unauthorized person”. The data reviled really damaged the agency and showed that the human rights of citizens were violated. The agency deliberately weakened encryption security internet standards. The Patriot Act of 2001 gave the NSA authority to gather mass phone billing records. Since the gathering of information was allowed on the “reasonable grounds” on which the record may be relevant to terrorist investigation has been with the world relevant abused. The metadata or gathering the telephone billing records has outweighed its costs. How successful was the program is still hard to estimate, but there was provided proof of 54 terrorist events that were prevented by this gathering of metadata. For a long period of time such a number was not so big. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was unable to identify a single instance involving a threat to the US in which phone records made a severe difference in the outcome and counterterrorism fight. The civil liberties and privacy cannot be justified. 10% the 215 program did essential work. Based on the calculations the cost benefit analysis shows little profit from such a program (Mueller & Mark, 2016). The Patriot Act of 2001 was changed and the NSA call metadata have expired, but many still argue that the NSA surveillance has changed not the capabilities. The Edward Snowden actions have vast consequences for the NSA and its reputation and also to disclose the information the citizens about the unlawful actions of federal agencies. There were also raised concerns about how easy it is to steal classified information.
There were advantages pointed out in easier wiretapping that enabled the easy access to needed information, but also concerns regarding the privacy and unlawful surveillance. Meta data has been collected which has been shown that with the vast amount of data good results can be achieved, but they are reducing the security and privacy of citizens. There were many disadvantages connected with it such as spying on all and also rising expanses that are still classified. There has been made, some advantages regarding the area of counterterrorism and organized crime with amendment of a Patriot Act collection of metadata and wiretapping. There were also advantages and disadvantages of Edward Snowden actions with reviling the classified information and data. The public becomes more educated about the techniques and tactics the state actors are using and expressed concerns which followed in the change of law for the better and more transparency. The disadvantage was the reputation of NSA and the whole country with the exposed data of spying also on its allies, which lead to increased diplomatic relationship between the US and Europe. There has been many advantages made, but in every case the provision, tool and laws can be used for other means and there is always a chance of abuse of data and overrated surveillance that is interfering with the civil liberty rights and there are still two sides one that supports such actions and the other that does not. All the provisions and toll enacted gave agencies more information and more free hands, but the cost benefit analysis should be made for every single of the used tools. With the terrorist threat lingering in the world and in the country the measures of counterterrorism are needed. The thesis of this paper is approved by showing that in every counterterrorism toll described in the paper along with advantages also many disadvantages and controversy were present. The law and safeguarding of human rights and civil liberties must be better protected. The right balance needs to be imposed with counterterrorism and organized crime techniques, tactics and measures and protection of civil rights.
Work Cited
Buci, Steven, Carafano, Jay James, Malcom, john, Rosenzweig, Paul, Stimson, Charles. (2015). Section 215 of the Patriot Act and Metadata Collection: Responsible Options for the Way Forward. Retrieved http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2015/05/section-215-of-the-patriot-act-and- metadata-collection-responsible-options-for-the-way-forward
Global Terrorism Database. (n.d). Retrieved https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?chart=attack&casualties_type=&ca sualties_max=
Kraft, Michael, Marks, Edward. (2011). U.S. Government Counterterrorism: A Guide to Who Does What. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
Lind, S. Nancy, Rankin, Erik. (2015). Privacy in the Digital Age: 21 st-Century Challenges to the Fourth Amendment. United States of America: SBC-CLIO.
Mueller, John, Stewarts, G. Mark. (2016). Chasing Ghost: The Policing of Terrorism. United States of America: Oxford University Press.
