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Patriot Act: September 12, 2001, Marked the Beginning of the End of American Privacy — "They Told Us it Was Temporary"
It’s Time to Repeal the Patriot Act
Only 45 days after the Twin Towers’ destruction in New York City on September 11, 2001, the Patriot Act became law, marking the end of American privacy, a tragedy never fully realized by the American people.
Only one day after the tragedy of 9/11, the U.S. Senate began to lay the groundwork for what would ultimately become the most significant infringement on personal freedom Americans would ever know.
U.S. Congressional Record shows the prevailing language of the Patriot Act was already being cooked into the minds of lawmakers in preparation for the passing of the Patriot Act.
“We must also dedicate ourselves to meeting a number of other challenges, including providing the resources that will help improve our signals intelligence capabilities, or, in other words, our ability to “listen in’ on unfriendly nations; stepped-up law enforcement to prevent terrorism; coordination of effort between various Federal agencies such as CIA, FBI, NSA, etc.; coordination of effort between Federal, State and local governments and law enforcement to maximize our ability to stop terrorist activity; and greater use of electronic surveillance and satellite imagery to track the enemies of peace.”
And just 44 days after the Senate implored the need for an inter-agency effort to invade the privacy of anyone and everyone they please, the Patriot Act was signed into law.
The Patriot Act is the single most damaging document to American privacy — covering everything from banking records, to education records — the Patriot Act gave the federal government, as well as local law enforcement agencies, full reign over our private information, if, of course, such information jeopardized the “allies of peace.”
At the time, the aforementioned was proposed for the protection of the American people. We could assume the purpose of the Patriot Act was for our protection, though, as time went on, and society changed, Federal Agencies have revealed themselves to be more than simply law enforcement.
Good luck getting Democrats to go back to the times of “classical liberal” — they now march in lockstep with the federal government to the tune of the Patriot Act, and are its main proponents.
