INNOCENCE JAILED

President Bush’s Patriot Act, which legalized the invasion of one’s privacy, had preceded this event. The Act claims that if the government believes that people are involved in illegal activities such as terrorism, it may listen to all their phone calls, Web conversations, and other forms of communication. The Act has particularly been put into practice by the FBI and has allowed them to search through people’s e-mail histories, as well as financial records, without the need of a court order. The Act also greatly impacts undocumented immigrants, putting them at a higher risk of deportation. The aforementioned are all results of U.S. tactics to “protect” the nation’s security, which may be appropriate in true examples of terrorism and other high crimes. Yet, they tend to cause more harm to innocent people than to bring about justice to those who actually do pose threats.

“I just talked to my family. They said there was some weird black SUV on our street and that it’s not leaving… I have to go home,” exclaimed Zahra before she picked up her books and left school. Zahra Mousavi, a recent graduate of the University of California at Riverside, hopes to one day become a physician assistant in order to help those in need. She is one of four siblings; two others are current UCLA students who, like her, are pursuing admirable careers. The abovementioned event took place in 2004 and was one of many other days when Zahra’s family was under surveillance by the FBI.

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