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Patriot Act Definition

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The course of American history changed forever on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 8:46 am, when Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (Bergen). Today, Americans are still experiencing the repercussions of this dark day through the new laws and regulations passed in response to these attacks, like the USA PATRIOT Act. The name of the act also serves as an acronym which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (“Highlights of the...” ). President George W. Bush signed this act into effect on October 26, 2001 to facilitate information sharing, detection, and punishment of terrorism (Duignan).
Up until the September 11 attacks, the worst …show more content…
Reality”). This definition was placed in the Patriot Act what classifies domestic terrorism and how it is punished section 811 expands upon this by explaining “penalties for terrorist conspiracies” by listing various acts of terrorism, and how they will be punished. Arson, for example is listed and defined “by striking ‘, or attempts to set fire or to burn”; and by inserting ‘or attempts or conspires to do such an act,” before ‘shall be imprisoned (Section 802). (Insert citation)

Section 805 – is “material support for terrorism.” Following the Oklahoma City bombing, congress passed the “Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty act of 1996 or AEDPA. The Patriot act reformed this law and added “…prohibition against giving "expert advice or assistance" (insert citation )to terrorists and increasing prison sentences for material support crimes from 10 to 15 years.”
The USA Patriot Act is still active in the United States today, and it has led to the successful arrest of terrorists, and many court cases debating its constitutionality. Despite this, it promotes information sharing, detection, and the punishment of terrorism in the hopes that a day like September 11 would never occur

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