USA PATRIOT Act: An Infringement of Civil Liberties?

With troops overseas in the Middle East, Americans are once again on edge about the possibility of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Now that Coalition forces are engaged in intense fighting in Iraq, the chance of an attack appears to be looming. On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners and crashed two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth in a field in Pennsylvania (Frank 5). On this day in history Americans sat glued to their televisions and radios watching helplessly as the 110-story twin towers crumbled to the ground. In took less than two hours to change our lives and country forever (Frank 4). In the aftermath of these horrible events, the United States government found it necessary to create new laws so this sort of atrocity could never happen again. On October 26, 2001 President George W. Bush signed the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrori...