Criminology

The tragic event that was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington had a weighty impact on Americans and their foreign policy. The attacks intensified attention on the relationship between civil liberties and security for the people. Towards the end of October 2001, then U.S. President George Bush signed into law the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (commonly referred to as the USA PATRIOT Act).

The civil liberties landscape has changed significantly since September 11. The most dominant change is that people in the U.S. (both citizens and non-citizens) have been forced to give up some rights. Although the impact of the USA PATRIOT Act is heaviest of non-citizens, legitimate Americans too have lost some of their most treasured rights. For Instance, the FBI has since been given wider powers to monitor email and telephone communications (Herridge  Shawn, 2002). This gives the police more authority to interfere with people s private affairs in the name of combating terrorism. Predictably, many Americans have opposed the withdrawal of their civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism (Associated Press, 2002).

Non-citizens have lost most in the way of civil liberties since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Amendments on the U.S. law following the attacks gave the police the green-light to arrest and detain non-citizens arbitrarily. Since September 2001, thousands of people of Muslim and Arabic backgrounds have been arrested and detained for varying lengths of time within and outside the United States. While some are released without being charged, others are detained for long periods of time in secret locations. Muslims and Arabs are at the highest risk of being arrested and detained arbitrarily (New York Advisory Committee, 2004). As such, American citizens and non-citizens have seen their civil rights eroded as a result of the post- September 11 anti-terrorism policy.