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Those who would give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY to purchase a little TEMPORARY SAFETY, deserve neither LIBERTY nor SAFETY.
- Benjamin Franklin

History Repeats Itself - December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001: déjà vu all over again

Terry Zahniser, Muskegon Community College, 49442

Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the watershed events of the attack on the US on September 11, 2001; it’s affects on US domestic and foreign policies, as well as the consequential developments thereafter. The events leading up to the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 directed the subsequent development of an early indication and warning intelligence infrastructure after WWII to preclude a similar failure by the US government to protect America and Americans from another surprise attack. The two questions and their short answers below provide a small glimpse into understanding why US government agencies failed to provide the promise of their sworn protection on September 11, 2001 (9/11), and how America had again fallen victim to another surprise attack from abroad, and the subsequent development of reactive responses put into law by the US government in an attempt to protect its citizenry from future real or perceived dangers.

Is the US Safer?

Nearly six years ago on October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001; making it a law – and ‘reauthorized’ in March 2006 (White House News Release). Although several portions of the Patriot Act had sunset provisions that expired at the end of 2005, the reauthorization act of 2006 continued with nearly the same extent of powers the previous statutes the original Patriot Act amended, including the laws governing criminal procedure, computer fraud and abuse, foreign intelligence, wiretapping, immigration, to name just a few (Henderson 180). The Patriot Act has been cited as...