- The war on terror is different from traditional wars because your enemy can be anyone. Anyone can be a terrorist, and the country can choose to keep this war going on forever because there is no definitive “win”. The article states that historically anyone who protests government is believed to do it on behalf of a foreign government therefore they have had counterintelligence investigations opened on them. This can lead to the violation of several basic rights. Williams also emphasizes the danger of fear that this is a battle of the mind that can lead to the violation of civilian’s basic rights because when people know nothing, they suspect everything.
2. The “Roving Wiretaps” of the Patriot Act raises concerns regarding violations of the fourth amendment which protects civilians against unreasonable searches and seizures and requires a warrant. Roving wiretaps allows law enforcement to monitor multiple communication devices without needing separate warrants for each device, this in turn lacks the specificity required by the fourth amendment. Also, this means that law enforcement can eavesdrop on the conversations of random civilians for which they have no right to listen to because it is a violation of privacy.
3. “Sneak and Peek” warrants seem to violate the fourth amendment by allowing searches to occur without the property owner’s knowledge, this infringes upon the reasonable expectation of privacy in their own home and this also leaves room for the potential abuse of power. Law enforcement can place or tamper with evidence of they chose to do so.
Hi Alizia. I just got done reading your response to this week’s discussion board post and I have to say that you did a great job on it! You are 100% right about the war on terror having the potential to be an endless war, since you never know how many enemies are in this war due to a terrorist being able to be anyone at anywhere. This essentially causes people to deal with fear itself, since trusting others is something that they can’t really do during this time. In regards to roving wiretaps, what makes them such a violation of the fourth amendment is that people can get monitored among multiple devices without the need of multiple warrants. Last but not least, sneak and peek allowed the government to search houses without people being there. You did a great job with this!