Reading Assignment #4 (International Terrorism)

bji224

Chapter15.pptx

Home >Law homework help >Criminal homework help >Reading Assignment #4 (International Terrorism)

Terrorism and Homeland Security, 9e

CHAPTER 15 Jonathan R. White

Learning Objectives, Part 1

Explain the dangers of restricting freedom in the name of security.

Differentiate between civil liberties and human rights.

List the controversial powers granted to the government by the USA PATRIOT Act.

Summarize the limitations placed on law enforcement in the USA FREEDOM Act.

List the constitutional issues that affect homeland security.

Learning Objectives, Part 2

Summarize how the Bill of Rights impacts law enforcement.

Cite the issues surrounding executive power to combat terrorism.

Explain due process in the Fourteenth Amendment.

Describe courts’ responses to attempts to counter terrorism with increased governmental executive branch power.

Summarize emerging criminal justice scholarship focusing on governmental power.

The Security Conundrum

The USA Patriot Act of 2001 was passed within weeks of the September attacks.

The 9/11 Commission issued a report calling for the complete overhaul of the U.S. intelligence system.

The National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan set standards for a new system of domestic intelligence gathering and analysis.

Human Rights and Civil Liberties

Human rights focus on the legal right to exist in a society where people are free from arbitrary coercion.

Human rights intersect terrorism and homeland security in two controversial areas:

Terrorist attacks on innocent civilians violate the human right of people to exist apart from political violence against innocent people.

Governments must respect the human rights of their opponents.

Governmental Power Debate

Opponents of increased governmental power focus their criticism on the government’s intelligence activities or information gathering.

Supporters of increased intelligence activities say that a nation cannot fight terrorism without gathering intelligence.

Debate and the 2006 Law

Several lawmakers were concerned about provisions for gathering secret information and stipulations about the denial of legal representation in terrorism investigations.

Under the renewed act, when the government seeks information, the request can be challenged in court.

Some of the less-controversial articles were renewed.

Extending Provisions in 2011

The Attorney General asked for permission to continue roving wiretaps.

Law enforcement officials have expanded powers to gather evidence in national security cases.

The government has the right to conduct wiretaps of noncitizens that are suspected of acts that threaten national security.

Debate in 2015

Intelligence surveillance orders of unknown targets.

Secret surveillance of non-citizens unassociated with terrorism.

Mass surveillance of e-mails, phone calls, and Internet traffic.

Sharing private information with the CIA.

Label activists as terrorists.

Seizure of property without a hearing.

USA FREEDOM Act of 2015

Bars the bulk collection of American’s telephone records and Internet data

Limits the government’s ability to collect data

Requires agencies to ask for specific data

Restores governmental authority to conduct roving wiretaps and to engage in surveillance of suspected lone wolf terrorists

Federal law enforcement agencies will face greater scrutiny from FISA Courts.

Gives organizations and private companies more authority to publically report FISA requests

Separation of Powers

The U.S. Constitution separates the powers of the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial, known as the separation of powers.

Powers not explicitly given to the federal government go to the states.

The Bill of Rights also comes into play.

Fear of Law Enforcement Power

Cole and Dempsey worry that Congress has given agencies, including the FBI and CIA, too much power to share intelligence without judicial review.

The issues about executive power form the crux of the debate about civil rights and security.

Increased Executive Powers

Wanting to do everything possible to catch terrorists, the Department of Justice scrapped the restrictions it had earlier placed on agents.

New guidelines, executive orders, and military tribunals have created strange twists in the criminal justice system.

Wedgwood argues that indefinite detention by executive order is not the most suitable alternative.

Limiting Executive Powers

1968 Crime Control and Safe Streets Act

Title III of the safe-streets act mandates judicial review of police surveillance.

1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Various forms of eavesdropping can be used to gather intelligence.

The courts have not been as vigilant in protecting individual rights during intelligence cases as they have been in criminal trials.

Executive Power and the Courts

The Supreme Court ruled that the detainees in Guantánamo could contest the charges against them.

The Supreme Court declared that the military tribunal system established for enemy combatants was illegal.

Civil Liberties and Police Work

The FBI conducted an internal audit to make sure that its actions were legal, and found that it might have violated its own rules or federal laws in national security investigations more than 1,000 times since 2002.

The vast majority of violations dealt with storing information from e-mails and Internet service providers that agents were not authorized to collect. This indicated a weakness in bureau procedures, and it unveiled something the FBI feared.

Controversies in Law Enforcement

Effective counterterrorist policy is based on intelligence.

The problem comes when the federal government requests assistance from state and local governments.

Any attempt to use state and local law enforcement in intelligence-gathering operations will have constitutional implications.

Any move to include the police in an intelligence gathering system alters the expectations local communities have about law enforcement.

National Security and Crime

There are two general schools of thought about the role of the police in intelligence gathering.

One position can be summarized as “eyes and ears”—state and local law enforcement officers should be used as extensions of America’s intelligence agencies.

Another way of thinking can be called traditional crime response and prevention.

The fear is that police intelligence-gathering activities will interfere with the traditional police missions.

Intelligence, Networks, and Roles

Combined federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies operate in conjunction to gather intelligence and conduct operations.

At the national level, drug intelligence reports are synthesized and disseminated to state and local agencies.

Brian Jenkins, Frank Cilluffo, and Salam al Marayati

Rather than militarizing the problem, they presented terrorism, especially the jihadist movement, as a social idea.

They equate terrorism to child abuse, illegal drug use, gangs, drunk driving, and family fights.

Law enforcement agencies became involved in education, intervention, information gathering, and enforcement in each of these areas.

Academic Community Critiques, Part 1

Anthony Newkirk (2010) examines a controversial case involving the Maryland State Police to argue that the network of homeland security intelligence operations amounts to an assault on civil liberties.

Monahan uses case data to demonstrate that the homeland security system is too invasive.

Academic Community Critiques, Part 2

Monahan claims that law enforcement officials break laws in fusion center operations.

His studies suggest that officials illegally infiltrate political groups and collect data.

Since many investigations are based on nationality or ethnicity, the resulting data helps to inject racism into the intelligence system.

Worst of all, the network of fusion centers has no public accountability.

Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR)

Department of Justice program designed to systematically analyze information gleaned from law enforcement field contacts

The intelligence system is justified under the concept of “predictive policing.”

Field contacts are people encountered during normal patrol or investigative operations.

Civil rights advocates believe that information should not be gathered and stored based on suspicion alone.

Chapter Take Aways, Part 1

Law enforcement has a paradoxical role in homeland security.

On the one hand it participates in a system of national defense.

On the other hand law enforcement’s key function is to preserve the rights of citizens.

Chapter Take Aways, Part 2

The USA FREEDOM Act was passed shortly after the PATRIOT Acts controversial provisions expired. It restored many law enforcement powers, but placed them under greater FISA scrutiny. It also forbade future dragnet mega-data searches.

The Constitution protects civil liberties and regulates the legal system. Governmental powers are separated so that no one branch gains excessive power.

All legislation and executive actions in terrorism are limited under the Constitution.

Chapter Take Aways, Part 3

Recent court decisions have emphasized the importance of (1) balanced power among the branches of government and (2) maintenance of civil rights. Despite the recent increase of executive power, the courts still have the right to review national security laws.

The Fourteenth Amendment impacts terrorism law.

Recent criminal justice scholarship has been taking a more critical view of enhanced governmental powers.