The USA Patriot Act: Defense of America or an Attack on Personal Rights?

Abstract

When all the facts surrounding the USA PATRIOT Act are compiled, it brings to mind the image of a sports car in desperate need of fine-tuning; it has the capacity to do great things if properly repaired. The revision process will be step-by-step. Once the secrecy issues are solved, the Act will be open to the elimination of civil liberties risks. Once the threat to civil liberties has vanished, the Act will be able to gain popular support and eliminate the risk of large-scale amendments or repeals. And once the Act has popular support and is devoid of threats to civil liberties, it will have the ability to achieve its true potential. A revised and publicly supported USA PATRIOT Act will undoubtedly be our nation's greatest weapon against terrorism in the years to come.