The Patriot Act is completely unconstitutional and should be repealed immediately!

Before I begin, I politely request that those who vote on this debate make their decision based on which debater won the argument rather than your own beliefs pertaining to the Patriot Act. In my opponent's first argument he (if it is a she please correct me) says that the Patriot Act states "that someone commits terrorism if they engage in any crime dangerous to human life aimed at influencing the policy of a government" The key phrase there is dangerous to human life. You give the examples of stopping a meeting or traffic, both examples clearly not being dangerous to human life and therefore are not labeled as terrorism under the Patriot Act by your definition. Also, if the Act so severely cut down on civil disobedience, then why is it that since 2001 when the Patriot Act was passed, there have been progressively more riots against President Bush's policies? If the Patriot act was as you have described, such events would not have taken place nor would they have increased in number, proving that the Act does not violate the constitutional right of freedom of assembly. In my opponent's second argument he says that the Patriot Act violates due process of law. While the Yaser Hamdi case was clearly a mistake, but I think it is important to look at the amount of time he was held. If he was held for 3 years, the government wouldn't just have him sit there and have no investigation. Clearly an investigation taking place over a 3 year period would mean that there was something that made it possible for him to be guilty that needed to be looked into. He wouldn't have been held for that long and the investigation wouldn't have gone on that long if his innocence was as apparent as you say. My opponent discuss aliens were denied due process, but since they are not U.S. citizens they do not have the right to due process that a U.S. citizen does. You cannot attack the Patriot Act for denying them a right that they did not possess in the first place. I must respectfully say that my opponent's statement: "Due process of law ensures protection to every person in this country regardless of origin or citizenship status" is false; the rights granted by the constitution only pertain to citizens of the United States. We do not have a constitutional amendment granting rights to every person on the planet; it only pertains to citizens of this country. In my opponent's final argument you discuss National Security letters. You do not address the process that comes before the extensive investigation your case outlines. It starts with INTERNATIONAL phone calls being monitored by machines (not people) searching for keywords. If enough key words are found that would suggest suspicious activity then and only then would a government agent look into it. My opponent even states: "The only requirement to issue a National Security Letter, in fact, is that the sought-after information is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation" If the information being obtained was relevant to the investigation then the investigation would go more smoothly; allowing the innocent people to be released faster and the guilty to be caught faster, so you can turn this argument in my favor. It is important to understand why such a thing is necessary and just how much the Patriot Act has benefited our country. Not a single terrorist attack has hit our home soil since 9/11. Phone tapping has been crucial to stopping the many terrorist plots that have arisen, a major example being about a year and a half ago when the terrorists were going to blow up 10 planes coming across the Atlantic to the United States. Such an attack would have killed hundreds of innocent civilians. It was by the use of wiretapping that this attack was prevented. This is only one example of how the Patriot Act has been successfully used to prevent terrorist attacks on our home soil. In these cases there is not always time to go through lengthy procedures; action has to be taken in order to prevent such a horrible thing from occurring. If the Patriot Act was repealed we would not be able to defend ourselves as efficiently as we have in the past and it would cause the lives of an untold number of innocent people. My opponent offers no other means of foiling these plots and I have proven how the Patriot Act has been a successful means of doing so. I have successfully refuted my opponent's claims and proven the great protection the Patriot Act has provided for us. For these reasons, I negate the statement that the Patriot Act is unconstitutional and should be repealed immediately.