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The USA PATRIOT Act - Point/Counterpoint The USA PATRIOT Act has stirred up heated passions on everything from civil liberties to privacy. Here are two differing views of Section 203, the Authority to Share Criminal Investigation Information: Point: “One of the most basic protections against government abuses has been the principle that a government agency should only collect information about individuals that it needs for a specific and articulated purpose, should use it only for the purposes for which it was collected, should not keep it any longer than necessary, and should not share it with other government agencies except for very good reasons. The PATRIOT Act violates that principle by adopting the approach that myriad government agencies should collect, share, and maintain forever as much information on as many people as possible.” Counterpoint: “More important, the USA PATRIOT Act does not permit or require the sharing of all—or even most—grand jury or criminal investigative information with the intelligence community. Section 203 of the Act expressly limits disclosure to foreign intelligence information. The Act defines the term ‘foreign intelligence’ to include information relating to the ability of the United States to defend itself against terrorism, sabotage, and clandestine intelligence activities of foreign powers, as well as information relating to ‘national defense’ or ‘the conduct of . . . foreign affairs.’” From Patriot Debates: Experts Debate the USA PATRIOT Act Edited by Stewart A. Baker and John Kavanagh. |
