can fly independently and are capable of carrying lethal and nonlethal
payloads. Initially, they were designed to replace manned aerial plat-
forms like the U-2and SR-71aircraft for reconnaissance photogra-
phy, but technological limitations associated with their development
made such substitution unfeasible. UAVs have been employed for re-
connaissance and intelligence gathering purposes since the 1950s, but
they became commonplace in the 1990s in such operational environ-
ments as Kosovo, when their ability to linger over hostile territory en-
abled them to provide surveillance information that would otherwise
be unavailable. They now come in a variety of forms, such as the
medium-altitude Predatorand the high-altitude Global Hawk. See
alsoTAGBOARD (OPERATION); SENIOR BOWL(OPERATION).USA PATRIOT ACT.Officially known as the Uniting and Strengthen-
ing America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept
and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act, the legislation was
adopted by Congress on 25 October 2001 as the legislative response
to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Its intent was to pro-
vide law enforcement officials with enhanced authorities to investi-
gate and prosecute terrorism. The law expanded the definition of ter-
rorist activity to include providing support to groups that the
individual “knew or should have known were terrorist organiza-
tions.” In addition, the act enabled the use of search warrants, rather
than wiretap orders, to read opened voice mail messages and elec-
tronic Internet mail. Furthermore, the law expanded the list of toxins
that are classified as dangerous and requires background checks of
scientists who work with them.
In the intelligence area, the USAPATRIOTAct also expanded in-
telligence authorities to enable better information gathering about
terrorists. It modified the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of
1978 to permit surveillance warrants whose purpose is “significant”
foreign intelligence information gathering. The act broadened the au-
thority of intelligence agencies to deal with individuals who have had
human rights violations or other transgressions. It also sought to pro-
mote intelligence sharing and cooperation among intelligence agen-
cies on criminal matters, which had heretofore been subject to the
strict separation of law enforcement from intelligence information.
The USA PATRIOT Act went through Congress with unaccus-
tomed speed, without much public debate, and with few oversight au-210 • USA PATRIOT ACT05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 210