USA PATRIOT Act, Title II - Overview

Overview

Title II covers all aspects of the surveillance of suspected terrorists, those suspected of engaging in computer fraud or abuse, and agents of a foreign power who are engaged in clandestine activities (in other words, spying). In particular, the title allows government agencies to gather "foreign intelligence information" from both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens, which is defined in section 203 of the title. Section 218 changed the requirements to obtain a FISA surveillance to include that a "significant purpose'' of the surveillance is to "obtain foreign intelligence information" where formerly it was required to be "the primary purpose." The change in definition was meant to remove a legal "wall" between criminal investigations and surveillance for the purposes of gathering foreign intelligence, which hampered investigations when criminal and foreign surveillance overlapped. However, that this wall even existed was found by the Federal Surveillance Court of Review to have actually been a long-held misinterpretation by government agencies. Section 203 also gave authorities the ability to share information gathered before a federal grand jury with other agencies.

Though not related to surveillance, the title also covers trade sanctions against the Taliban — a group which was determined by the Secretary of State to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism — and the export of agricultural commodities, medicine, or medical devices is now pursuant to one-year licenses issued and reviewed by the United States Government. It also excluded export of agricultural commodities, medicine, or medical devices to the Government of Syria and to the Government of North Korea.