How Patriotic is the Patriot Act?: Freedom Versus Security in the Age of Terrorism

by Amitai Etzioni

In this short book, Etzioni, the well-known and respected public intellectual and communitarian thinker, charts a middle course, or third way 'between those who are committed to shore up our liberties but blind to the needs of public security, as well as those who never met a right they are not willing to curtail to give authorities an even freer hand.' This book will prove a useful guide for citizens looking for a thought provoking, well-reasoned and sober analysis of one of the hot button issues of our time.

Genres: Government, Nonfiction

212 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2004

Reviews

[Kirk Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Etzioni deserves credit for a real accomplishment here. He carves out a place in the middle- dynamic middle- of the debate over whether the Patriot Act has been the right law for the post-9/11 era. Etzioni points out the errors of the Left who scream over every possible new power the government might exercise to fight terrorism while taking the Right to task for legislation that could legitimately harm civil liberties. Ultimately he calls for a communitarian goal for granting the government solid tools to help protect the public and root out enemies while creating enough review boards and inspectors to make sure rights are being safeguarded. While not always clearly written, the book sparkles with its common-sense.

[Alexandra]

Some interesting quotes:

"In November 2001, the FBI admitted that it had developed, but not yet implemented, a remote-control approach called Magic Lantern that allows the FBI to put software on a computer that will record keystrokes typed without installing any physical device. Like the KLS, Magic Lantern does not by itself decrypt e-mail but it can obtain the suspect's password. The details of how it does this have not been released. It is said to install itself on the suspect's computer in a way similar to a Trojan horse computer virus. It disguises itself as ordinary, harmless code, then inserts itself onto a computer. For example, the FBI will have a box pop up when someone connects to the Internet reading something like 'Click here to win.' When the user clicks on the box, the virus will enter the computer" (61).

"[A]n investigation of the GAO conducted between September 2002 and May 2003 found that in every instance--without a single exception--when agents attempted to enter the United States from Western Hemisphere countries using counterfeit driver's licenses and birth certificates with fake identities, they were successful" (98).

In April and May 2000, the GAO's OSI agents tried to gain access to nineteen federal buildings and two airports using counterfeit law enforcement credentials (that were either acquired from public sources or were created using commercial software packages, information from the Internet, and an ink-jet color printer). Agents gained entry into eighteen of the twenty-one sites on their first attempt; they entered the other three sites on their second attempt. Thus, at all sites the agents were successful and the counterfeit documents were not detected. The facilities in which the agents gained entry were not minor ones, but rather included some of the most sensitive and, presumably, most secure facilities, such as the CIA, the Pentagon, the FBI, the Department of State, the Department of Justice, and others. [...] one agent always carried a valise.

Another troubling finding was that at fifteen of the sixteen facilities where agency heads or cabinet secretaries worked, agents were able to stand directly outside their suites. The five times agents attempted to enter the suites, they were able to do so successfully. Undercover agents also were able to enter restrooms near the agency head's or cabinet secretary's suite and could have left dangerous materials there without being detected. (99–100)

"When the GAO's OSI agents used false means of identification (a fake ID card from a fictitious agency within the Department of Defense), they even were able to enter areas controlled by the military, areas in which weapons are stored as they are shipped across the country. Moreover, the undercover agents were allowed unhampered access to the weapons themselves. The GAO report on this matter has apparently proven either so damaging to national security or so embarrassing to the government, or both, that it has been withdrawn from circulation" (101).

[Coral · Rating 3 out of 5]

Etzioni does a very thorough job of analyzing each of the components of the Patriot Act. His approach differs from others who tend to discuss the Patriot Act as a whole, without looking at its discrete parts and assessing whether or not there is some good mixed in with the bad.

I did not agree with the author on everything, but I appreciate his willingness to look at the pieces of the Act and look for a middle ground.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very easy to read critique of some of the legislation following 9/11. Particularly intersting look at privacy and the culture of fear that has been created and played upon.