After the 9/11 terrorist attack, the US special services received broad and dubious powers, which, however, did not help prevent the storming of the Congress building after almost 20 years. But Washington has a reason to turn all Americans into suspects.
The tragedy of September 11, 2001 was the most catastrophic failure of the US special services in the entire history of their existence, writes the publication “Foreign Policy”. Everyone knew then that something had to be done, though they didn’t know what it was. So the Patriot Act was born. George W. Bush signed it on October 26, 2001.
Although the document clearly violated American ideals, many Democrats strongly supported the idea of establishing total surveillance. Then-Senator Joe Biden was among them. At the same time, the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out that the Patriot Act “turns ordinary citizens into suspects”.
The law, which allowed, among other things, to listen to the telephone conversations of Americans, is still in force today. However, as Foreign Policy notes, it did not contribute in any way to the fight against terrorism, for which, in fact, it was created. The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, presented a high-profile report back in 2015. As it turned out, the tapping of telephone conversations did not give any significant results.
January in the United States began with the storming of the Capitol by conservative Americans. The patriot act did not contribute in any way to the suppression of the action, which resulted in the death of 5 people. Moreover, the organization of the protests took place in public, on social networks, but the officials ignored it.
But politicians have again started talking about the need for increased surveillance. Even Biden thought about the adoption of the law on domestic terrorism. Only there is no guarantee that the new measures that violate human rights really contribute to ensuring security, the newspaper writes. The problem is that it won’t stop the politicians.