Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 Essay

Total Length: 896 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 0

Page 1 of 3

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 and Other Laws

The terrorist activities of Sept 11, 2001 serve as the source of the U. S fight against terrorism as made popular by the Bush regime. Previously, United States strategies to combat terrorism targeted on attacks against its interests overseas, and support for other governments' initiatives to control terrorism functions within their borders. However, Sept 11 exposed weaknesses to terrorism by non-state players within U.S. boundaries. In reaction, the U. S reformed its anti-terrorist techniques to prevent future attacks by focusing on terrorists, foreign and local, known and potential. In order to facilitate terrorist prosecution, the congress offers Appropriate Tools Required to Identify and Prevent Terrorism Acts. They include FISA, Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, and the PATRIOT Act.

At the most basic level, FISA describes the techniques needed to perform digital surveillance to obtain global intelligence. Considerably, these methods do not require obtaining an order as one would do in the AEDP Act and the PATRIOT Act. Government authorities in counterterrorism initiatives may attempt to acquire a FISA warrant, which have unique requirements and have different levels of secrecy. FISA allows digital surveillance, but FISA includes a smaller range of conditions. The targeted enterprise must be a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. The targeted communications must correspond with the capacity of the U. S to safeguard against an overseas initiative to take part in global terrorism, attacks or clandestine intellect activities. If the intelligence details are about an American, the details must be necessary to prevent an attack, destroy, and not just relate to the country's ability to do so.

In contrast, the PATRIOT Act is the foundation of the U.S. domestic security program. Most considerably, it eliminated several Clinton-era limitations that had constructed "walls of separation" deterring intelligence authorities and law-enforcement authorities from sharing information with one another and working together on investigations. This limitation had successfully impaired the government's capability to battle terrorism, and was probably responsible for the government's failing to prevent the 9/11 acts. The PATRIOT Act also provides the Treasury Division more advantage to destroy terrorist funding networks.

Stuck Writing Your "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978" Essay?

In addition, it allows law-enforcement authorities to acquire a single search warrant protecting all places where they alleged terrorist action might happen.

On the contrary, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 introduced important changes to the judiciary system. It empowers the government to prosecute some crimes that would be held in state courts, given the crimes were to intimidate, coerce or retaliate against a civilian or a government population. The provisions of the Act address violent acts like terrorism. To be specific, the provisions grant the government with the power to pursue terrorists outside the country, who kill attempt to harm or harm U.S. citizens. In addition, it permits federal courts to issue a death penalty to terrorists who murder Americans outside the U.S. jurisdiction. Under this act, murder can be punishable by the death penalty while conspiracy to commit murder is punishable by a life imprisonment.

Despite the differences among the three Acts, some commonalities exist. One of the common points for all of these Acts is their concentration on domestic violators. This is especially true of FISA, which details particular techniques for conducting secret operations to identify criminals. FISA supports the use of espionage, both physically and through electronic means, to find out which sort of People in America may be involved in illegal activities. Specifically, this law was created to identify citizens that were trying to assist overseas powers in a subversive and illegal ways that may include functions of terror.

American homeland security Division is found on the mission of defending the U.S. from terrorism. While the U.S. is more highly resilient and reliable because of a highly effective Homeland Security agency, threats from terrorism continue to develop and persist. The objective of U.S. foreign policy over the years has been to maintain stability, to ensure accessibility to international nations and to contain competing forces. The making….....

Show More ⇣


     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA Of 1978" (2014, November 27) Retrieved May 15, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act-fisa-2153067

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA Of 1978" 27 November 2014. Web.15 May. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act-fisa-2153067>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA Of 1978", 27 November 2014, Accessed.15 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act-fisa-2153067