American Civil Liberties Union

About the author: The American Civil Liberties Union is the nation's oldest and largest civil liberties organization.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, Congress passed the USA-PATRIOT Act, which grants the CIA expanded powers to fight terrorism. This act allows the CIA to spy on Americans by permitting a vast array of domestic information gathering from school records, Internet activity, and telephone conversations. The act removes the safeguards established by the Church Committee in the 1970s, which curtailed the CIA's domestic intelligence gathering activities in order to protect Americans. One of the most serious dangers inherent in the act is the requirement that law enforcement officers share with the CIA foreign intelligence information obtained in the United States...