Does the USA PATRIOT ACT violate civil liberties?

300 words

The USA Patriotic Act does violate civil liberties. Civil liberties is the Fundamental individual rights such
as freedom of speech and religion, protected by law against interference from the government.
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But there was also a feeling of vulnerability. Sales of guns and gas masks increased. Assaults and threats
targeted Arab Americans and those who looked Middle Eastern.
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Congress quickly appropriated$40 billion for disaster relief and support for the effort to fight terrorism.
Law-makers passed the USA Patriot Act in October. It provided law-enforcement agencies wider
discretion in dealing with those suspected of terrorism. It loosened restrictions on the use of searches,
wiretaps, and monitoring the Internet. The attorney generals office was given the power to detain and
deport noncitizens thought to be a security risk. While some criticized the Patriot Act for restricting civil
liberties, most Americans supported actions that might prevent further acts of terrorism, including the
Justice Departments detention of over 1,200 people, mostly Arab immigrants.
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President Bush quickly defined the new war on terrorism as a global effort, aimed not only against the
network of terrorists but at any person or country that supported them. Every nation in every
region, he announced, had a choice to be with us, or you are with the terrorists.
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1
Gormly, James, Carol Berkin, Christopher Miller, and Robert Cherny. Competing Visions of the Virtuous Republic,
1770-1796." In Making America: A History of the United States. : Wadsworth, 2013. 185
2
Gormly, James, Carol Berkin, Christopher Miller, and Robert Cherny. Entering a New Century, 1992-2010." In
Making America: A History of the United States. : Wadsworth, 2013. 919
3
Gormly, James, Carol Berkin, Christopher Miller, and Robert Cherny. Entering a New Century, 1992-2010." In
Making America: A History of the United States. : Wadsworth, 2013. 919
4
Gormly, James, Carol Berkin, Christopher Miller, and Robert Cherny. Entering a New Century, 1992-2010." In
Making America: A History of the United States. : Wadsworth, 2013. 921