USA PATRIOT Act

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President George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act in the White House on October 26, 2001

The USA PATRIOT Act is a US federal law that was passed by Congress on October 26, 2001 in the wake of the war on terrorism . It was a direct response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and the anthrax attacks that followed shortly thereafter . The law brings with it a greater restriction of American civil rights , but also effects for travelers to the USA, since the requirements for passports have been increased.

USA PATRIOT Act stands as acronym for U niting and S trengthening A merica by P roviding A ppropriate T ools R equired to I ntercept and O bstruct T errorism Act of 2001 , German as: "Law for the unification and strengthening America's appropriately by providing tools, to stop and prevent terrorism ”.

Parts of the law expired on June 1, 2015 and were replaced the day after on June 2, 2015 by the provisions of the USA Freedom Act .

Conclusion of the law

When it passed, Congress was under great pressure. John Ashcroft called for the USA PATRIOT Act to be approved in Congress within three days, threatening that any kidnapping tactic would help the terrorists. The pressure on the Congress came not only from outside, but also from the Congress itself. The MP Lynn Woosley (D-Calif.) Wrote: […] Congress would have blood on its hands if there was another terrorist attack while we deliberated ("Congress would have blood on its hands if there were another terrorist attack while we deliberate").

The law was passed on October 24, 2001 by the House of Representatives with 357 votes to 66 and on October 25 by the Senate with only one vote against ( Russ Feingold ). On October 26th, George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act - Ashcroft's three-day deadline was met.

Further development

On November 13, 2001, US President Bush issued a so-called military order , tightening the USA PATRIOT Act: terror suspects who are not US citizens can now be sentenced to unlimited detention.

On January 26, 2004, a federal judge declared parts of the law unconstitutional for the first time. The US Department of Justice reserved an objection.

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

On February 2, 2006, the House of Representatives decided to extend the deadline to March 10. By that date, the House of Representatives wanted to come to an agreement on the law with the Senate and the White House.

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

The USA PATRIOT Act was changed on a number of points. After a federal judge ruled certain items to be unconstitutional, the practice of the National Security Letter (NSL) was changed so that companies forced to submit data with this document can now take legal action against them. This was previously not possible because those affected were imposed on the person concerned under the threat of a penalty to maintain confidentiality or to prohibit speech (English. Gag order ). Also, people with an NSL are no longer forced to reveal the name of their lawyer. The first to successfully file a suit despite the ban on speaking was ISP operator and Internet activist Nicholas Merrill. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several lawyers, he managed, after more than seven years, to partially lift the ban on speaking, albeit under strict conditions. So he could u. a. Received up to ten years imprisonment for mentioning certain details. His example was followed by a library in Wisconsin and the operator of the Internet platform archive.org .

On March 7, 2006, the USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the House of Representatives by 280 votes to 138. On the Republican side, 214 MPs voted for and 13 against. With the Democrats, 66 voted for and 124 against. An independent MP voted against the law.

On March 9, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the amended law into force.

On March 1, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the extension of special provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that had previously been approved by the House and Senate with a clear majority.

On May 26, 2011, Congress approved the three provisions of roving wiretaps (such as: “ General judicial permission of the FBI to intercept any communication media of a terror suspect”), Access to Business Records and Tangible Things (German: “Access to business books and property ") And Lone Wolf (electronic surveillance by FISA of terrorist suspects acting alone, including US citizens) for four years until June 1, 2015. Obama signed the law shortly before midnight using a signature machine while he was in France at the G8 summit in Deauville in 2011 .

Contents of the USA PATRIOT Act

General provisions

The USA PATRIOT Act aims to simplify federal investigations into the event of a terrorist threat. For this purpose, certain laws, including those relating to fundamental rights, are restricted and supplemented or replaced by the following regulations:

  • The requirement to use judges to supervise telephone or internet surveillance has largely been abolished, thereby significantly expanding the FBI's eavesdropping rights. The responsible judge must be informed of a surveillance, but he is obliged to approve the corresponding wiretapping. Telephone companies and Internet providers must disclose their information.
  • House searches may be carried out without the knowledge of the person concerned.
  • The decision as to whether an organization is classified as terrorist goes to the Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs .
  • Foreigners may be deported because they are members of one of the terrorist groups defined by the Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs.
  • The FBI has the right to inspect bank customers' financial information without evidence of a crime.
  • The Foreign Secret Service ( CIA ), which, unlike the FBI, is not subject to extensive public control, is given the right to investigate domestically.

Effects on travelers to the United States

The USA requires the PNR booking code (Passenger Name Record) to provide personal information about every passenger before they enter the USA, which is guaranteed by the USA PATRIOT Act.

Effects on the protection of personal data and intellectual property

The provisions of the PATRIOT Act not only allow US authorities such as the FBI, the NSA or the CIA to access the servers of US companies without a judicial order. Foreign subsidiaries are also obliged under US law to grant access to their servers; even if local laws prohibit this.

In all cases in which personal data is stored on servers of US subsidiaries, this violates European laws according to the assessment of the data protection officer of the state of Schleswig-Holstein at the time , Thilo Weichert . These prohibit the transfer of personal data if they leave the EU. According to Weichert, EU companies that store such data on servers of US subsidiaries or have them processed by them violate European and national laws.

It used to be assumed that access would only take place in a targeted manner and in individual cases. At the beginning of June 2013, however, it became known that the USA is tapping data to a far greater extent than previously known or assumed. According to this report, the servers of large companies such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and many telephone providers have been tapped continuously since 2007. A qualitative expansion has also taken place: Not only e-mails, but also telephone calls, video conferences etc. are continuously being skimmed off as sources. The data is stored at the NSA in a special database and, if necessary, searched for relevant data patterns using data mining methods . By order of the FISC , a court whose meetings and judgments are secret, all inventory and traffic data from international users has been transmitted to the NSA since 2003 and that of US Internet companies since 2007. In their data protection declaration ( privacy declaration ), however, these companies often affirm that data will only be passed on if there is a court judgment. However, since the FISC has issued a secret and at the same time comprehensive judgment on access by the NSA, it can be assumed that potentially all data of international users will be passed on to the NSA by US providers.

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

In addition to the protection of personal data, the literature also refers to the risk that the PATRIOT Act could be misused for industrial espionage, especially since US authorities are inclined to adopt a robust approach, as the pressure on the major Swiss bank UBS has shown. Storage and data mining are ideal means of targeted industrial espionage. The Snowden revelations also intensified the discussion about possible industrial espionage. “The mechanical engineering association VDMA is afraid of being targeted by spies. The focus on the south and west of Germany, in which many of our 'hidden champions' are located, gives rise to concerns that economic and industrial espionage is being carried out in a targeted manner, ”said Glatz in Tagesspiegel. As early as 1993, before the PATRIOT Act came into force, President Clinton declared that the CIA and NSA should help American companies with international business.

According to the trade journal c't , the situation has worsened under the Trump administration. The trade journal advises against storing data in US clouds.

See also

Web links

literature

  • Giorgio Agamben: State of emergency. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-518-12366-1 .
  • Nancy Chang: The End of Civil Rights? US anti-terrorism laws hostile to freedom after 9/11. Schwarzerfreitag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-937623-30-2 .
  • Stephan Büsching: Rule of Law and Terrorism. Investigation of the security policy reactions of the USA. Germany and Great Britain on international terrorism. Hanover 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-59657-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Patriot Act provisions have expired: What happens now? (Article from www.cnn.com, accessed June 2, 2015).
  2. ↑ See Barack Obama Signs 'USA Freedom Act' to reform NSA surveillance (article in nbcnews.com, accessed on June 3, 2015) "USA Freedom (Act)" is a Apronym for U niting and S trengthening A merica by F ulfilling R ights and E nding E avesdropping, D ragnet-collection and O nline M onitoring Act
  3. ↑ Richard Brem: State of emergency - dark zones of the law in democracies. ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / oe1.orf.at archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: oe1. orf.at . September 7, 2004.
  4. ^ Senate Resoundingly Renews Patriot Act. On: cbsnews .com. March 2, 2006 (English).
  5. ^ A b David Stout: US Senate modifying Patriot Act. On: nytimes .com. March 1, 2006 (English).
  6. ↑ Lecture “The importance of resisting excessive government surveillance” by Nicholas Merrill at the Chaos Communication Congress 2010 of the Chaos Computer Club , see also recording as video and audio file (VID 4263) ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 22, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / events.ccc.de
  7. ^ House approves Patriot Act renewal. On: CNN .com , March 7, 2006.
  8. ^ Bill Brubaker: Bush Signs New Version of Patriot Act. On: washingtonpost .com. March 9, 2006.
  9. ↑ Michael B. Farrell: Obama signs Patriot Act extension without reforms. On: csmonitor .com March 1, 2010 (English).
  10. ↑ Announcement of the extension of the PATRIOT Act to 2015 (PDF; 534 kB) , May 23, 2011 (English).
  11. ↑ Obama signed the Patriot Act with machines. On: DiePresse.com . May 27, 2011.
  12. ^ Obama Signs Last-Minute Patriot Act Extension. On: foxnews .com. , May 27, 2011 (English).
  13. ^ Marc Pitzke: US spying on the Internet: Obama's surveillance state. On: spiegel.de. June 7, 2013.
  14. ^ Matthias Kremp, Konrad Lischka and Ole Reissmann: Project Prism: US secret service spies on internet users worldwide. On: spiegel.de. June 7, 2013.
  15. ↑ Microsoft allows NSA access to customer data. At: Focus.de.
  16. ↑ Jürgen Seeger: To cloud or not to cloud. Editorial, iX - magazine for professional information technology , 11/2011.
  17. ↑ Economy questions the free trade agreement. 3 July 2013.
  18. ↑ Industrial espionage. At: Sueddeutsche.de.
  19. ↑ heise.de: Behind the Walls - Why you should keep your data in the EU in 2017