【明報專訊】On 26 October 2001 the USA PATRIOT act (《愛國者法案》) was signed into law by US President George W Bush. A response to the 911 attacks, which is the worst terrorist attack in US history, the act is a piece of controversial legislation which has attracted as much approval as criticism.

What the act is about

The full name of the act is "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001". Containing ten titles, the act greatly expands the powers of the government to strengthen security controls. The first title, for example, authorises measures to enhance the ability of domestic security services to prevent terrorism.

The second title, called Surveillance procedures, gives the government considerable power to gather "foreign intelligence information" from both US and non-US citizens, and as such is the most controversial part of the bill. Particularly worth mention are practices like "sneak and peek" warrants, roving wiretaps and the ability of the FBI to gain access to documents that reveal the patterns of US citizens, all of which are sanctioned by the second title. A sneak and peek search warrant, for example, authorises law enforcement officers to enter private premises without the occupant's permission — or even knowledge — and to clandestinely (秘密地) search the premises. Roving wiretaps, on the other hand, save law enforcement officers the need to apply for a new surveillance (監控) warrant after a target attempts to defeat surveillance by throwing away a phone and acquiring a new one.

Other titles of the bill entail measures to counter money-laundering by terrorist groups, enhance border security, "remove obstacles to investigating terrorism", improve intelligence, etc.

Controversies

The USA PATRIOT Act is highly controversial. It was signed into law just a little more than a month after the 911 attacks, and critics argue that the legislators voted in favour of the bill though they had not spend enough time to study it in detail.

The bill greatly expands the power of the US government, enabling government agencies to tap (竊聽) even phone calls made by foreign leaders. An outcry arose when Edward Snowden (斯諾登), a former CIA (中情局) employee, blew the whistle by transferring the documents he had copied from the agencies he worked with to the press. It turned out that world leaders like Angela Merkel (默克爾), the German Chancellor, had been the targets of US wiretapping as well. A diplomatic crisis ensued, forcing US President Barack Obama to review the policies and promise that would not happen again.

Parts of the Patriot Act expired on 1 June 2015. With the passage of the USA Freedom Act on 2 June 2015 the expired parts were restored and renewed through 2019. However, Section 215 of the law was amended to stop the NSA (美國國家安全局) from continuing its mass phone data collection program.

Civil liberties and national security: the ongoing debate

Surveillance programs conducted by any government have always attracted controversies. On the one hand, no one can deny the fact that the measures authorisied by the USA PATRIOT Act have helped prevent many terrorist attacks and have made the US — or even the world — a safer place. But all this has come at a cost, i.e. ordinary people's civil liberties. The government has gathered loads of information on individuals, and the outcome can be disastrous if the information is used improperly or falls into wrong hands.