Patriot Act

The USA PATRIOT Act ( Apronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001; German as: " Act to Strengthen and agreement [ U.S. ] America by providing appropriate tools to stop terrorism and to block " ) is a United States federal law that was adopted on 25 October 2001 by Congress in the wake of the war on terrorism. It was a direct response to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 and the anthrax attacks occurred a little later. The law puts a restriction on the American civil rights to a greater extent with it, but also have implications for U.S. travelers, as the requirements were increased to passports. With the adoption of the Convention was under great pressure. John Ashcroft called for a rubber stamp of the USA PATRIOT Act in Congress in three days and threatened that any filibuster would help the terrorists. The pressure on the Congress came not only from outside but also from the Congress itself: the MPs Lynn Woolsey ( D-Calif.) wrote, "that Congress would have blood on its hands if there what another terrorist attack while we deliberated. " ( ... that Congress would have blood on his hands, if there was another terrorist attack, while we advise us.). October 26, 2001 George W. Bush was the USA PATRIOT Act signed - Ashcroft 3 -day period was observed.

Development

On 13 November 2001, President Bush issued a so-called military order and tightened so that the USA PATRIOT Act: About terror suspects who do not have U.S. citizenship, now an unlimited imprisonment may be imposed.

The law was adopted on 24 October 2001 by the House of Representatives with 357 votes to 66 and on 25 October by the Senate with only one dissenting vote ( Russ Feingold ).

26 January 2004 declared for the first time a federal judge parts of the law unconstitutional. The U.S. Department of Justice reserved the right to an appeal.

On 22 December 2005 approved the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for parts of the law that would have expired at the turn of the year out of an extension of one month, which meant a heavy defeat for President Bush.

On 2 February 2006, an extension of the deadline to March 10, it was decided in the House of Representatives. Up to this date, the House of Representatives wanted to find an agreement on the law along with the Senate and the White House.

On 2 March 2006, the U.S. Senate approved a permanent extension for 14 of the 16 points and a four-year period for two points of the law with 89 votes to 10. The dissenting votes came from Senators Jim Jeffords, Robert Byrd, Russ Feingold, Daniel Akaka, Jeff Bingaman, Tom Harkin, Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, Patty Murray and Ron Wyden - with the exception of the non-party Jim Jeffords - by representatives of the Democrats. Senator Daniel Inouye ( Democrats ) abstained.

The USA PATRIOT Act was modified in some points. After a federal judge had found some points to be unconstitutional, the practice of the National Security Letter ( NSL) has been adjusted so that companies who are forced with this document to submit the data, now can legally defend themselves against it. This was previously not possible, because those concerned with the threat of punishment or a confidentiality ban on speaking (English " gag order" ) was imposed. Also, people are no longer forced with a NSL, divulge the name of her attorney. The first person who despite gag order successfully sued the other hand, was ISP operators and Internet activist Nicholas Merrill. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) and several lawyers succeeded him after more than seven years, the ban on speaking part, albeit under strict conditions, be repealed. So he could, inter alia, for mentioning certain details get detention for up to ten years. His example was followed by a library in Wisconsin and the operator of the Internet Platform archive.org.

On 7 March 2006, the USA PATRIOT Act with 280 to 138 votes was adopted by the House of Representatives. On the part of Republicans voted 214 deputies in favor and 13 against. The Democrats voted 66 for and 124 against. An independent Member of Parliament voted against the law.

On 9 March 2006 began, President George W. Bush, the amended law with his signature into force.

On March 1, 2010 President Barack Obama gave the extension previously approved by the House and Senate with a clear majority of specific provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act by signing the force of law.

On 26 May 2011 the three provisions " roving wiretaps " was created by Congress (about: Judicial General Permit the FBI to intercept any means, of a terror suspect ), " Access to Business Records and Tangible Things" ( German: access to books and tangible assets) and " Lone Wolf" ( electronic surveillance of FISA by acting alone terror suspects, including U.S. citizens) extended for four years until 1 June 2015. Obama signed the Act in this regard shortly before midnight using a signature machine, while he was at the G8 summit in Deauville 2011 resided in France.

Contents of the USA PATRIOT Act

General provisions

The USA PATRIOT Act is to facilitate the investigation of the federal authorities in the case of a terrorist threat. To accomplish this, even question the fundamental rights, laws are limited and supplemented or replaced by the following rules:

• The need to judge for telephone or Internet use monitoring as a check, was largely abolished by the monitoring rights of the FBI be significantly expanded. Although the judge must be informed by a monitoring, this is, however, obliged to authorize the appropriate wiretap. Telephone companies and Internet providers have their data disclose.
• House searches must be carried out without the knowledge of the person concerned.
• The decision as to whether an association is classified as terrorist goes over to the Justice and Foreign Affairs.
• Foreigners may be deported because of membership in one of defined by the Department of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs terrorist organization.
• The FBI has the right to inspect the financial data from bank customers without present that evidence of a crime.
• The foreign intelligence service (CIA ), in contrast to the FBI is not subject to extensive public scrutiny, will have the right to determine and domestically.

Impact on travelers in the USA

The U.S. demand personal information about any airline passenger before his entry into the United States, which are guaranteed by the USA PATRIOT Act with the PNR code ( Passenger Name Record).

Impact on the protection of personal data and intellectual property

The provisions of the Patriot Act allows U.S. authorities such as the FBI, the NSA or the CIA not only access without a warrant on the server by U.S. companies. Foreign subsidiaries are under the U.S. law to grant access to their servers; even if local laws prohibit it.

In all cases in which personal data is stored on servers of U.S. subsidiaries, this violates the assessment of the data protection officer of the State of Schleswig- Holstein, Thilo Weichert, of European law. These prohibit the transfer of personal data when they leave the EU area. EU companies that store such data on servers by U.S. subsidiaries, or can be processed by this, breach by Weichert against European and national legislation.

So far it has been assumed that an access is made only selectively and in individual cases. Beginning in June 2013 has now been announced that the United States tapped into a far greater extent than was previously known or assumed data. According to this report, the server large companies such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and many phone providers are continuously tapped since 2007. Also a qualitative expansion has occurred: There are not only emails, but also phone calls, video conferencing, etc. continuously skimmed off as sources. The data is stored at the NSA in a special database and searched if necessary with methods of data mining for relevant data patterns. By order of the FISC, a court whose judgments and meetings are secret, all inventory and traffic data from international users through the telephone companies and since 2007 are transmitted to the U.S. Internet companies to the NSA since 2003. In their privacy policy (Privacy Declaration) but these companies often affirm that only data is passed if a court judgment vorliege. But since the FISC issued a secret and at the same time acting comprehensively judgment for access by the NSA, it can be assumed that all potential users of international data are forwarded by U.S. providers to the NSA.

Beginning in July 2013 it was announced by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, that at least the following essential and online services from Microsoft as Outlook.com, Hotmail and Skype for PRISM, the evaluation software of the NSA are accessible.

In addition to the protection of personal data is referred to in the literature on the risk that the Patriot Act could be misused for economic intelligence, especially since U.S. authorities are inclined to more robust approach, as the pressure on the Swiss bank UBS have shown. Storage and data mining are an ideal means of targeted industrial espionage. Through the revelations of Snowden also the discussion about possible economic espionage has been strengthened. " The Engineering Federation VDMA afraid to be in the sights of spies. Just focusing on the south and west of Germany, in which many of our 'hidden champions ' sitting, raises the concern that targeted economic and industrial espionage is operated, "said Glatz in the Tagesspiegel. As early as 1993, and thus before the enactment of the Patriot Act, President Clinton had declared that CIA and NSA were to assist U.S. firms in international business transactions.