They were planning to go to the Middle East to fight with Al Qaeda and provide them with materials to fight our troops. However, thanks to section 218, which allows authorities to obtain foreign intelligence, and section 504, which allows authorities to perform physical searches and electronic surveillance for the purpose of public protection, the "Portland Seven" were arrested. Among these plots, there have been numerous other plots that haven't been given the same amount of attention as others. A notable plot that deserves attention was the Synagogue Terror plot of 2009. Four men planned to bomb synagogues in New York, and to shoot down military planes at a nearby Air Force base. Again, thanks to the PATRIOT Act, the men were arrested and convicted. Luckily, there was actually no danger at all. The FBI had sold the men fake bombs and missile launchers. Once again, if authorities hadn't been able to disrupt the plans, hundreds of innocent lives could have been lost. The PATRIOT Act is responsible for saving thousands of lives here in the U.S. Not only has the Act been responsible for saving lives, it has also has disrupted financing for terrorist organizations in other countries. For example, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was receiving 1.3 million dollars per month from a courier here in the U.S. FARC is labeled as a terrorist organization by the State Department. A Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agent named Norman Bright was able to catch the courier. Bright used key elements provided by the Act to investigate and interrogate the suspect (Gerdes 23-24). Thanks to Bright and the Act, ICE was successfully able to cut the money flow to FARC from the U.S. Yet another example of the PATRIOT Act stopping the smuggling of money to foreign places is the Alaa Al-Sadawi case. Al-Sadawi was a New Jersey man who had ties to foreign terrorist groups. Al-Sadawi was trying to smuggle $659,000 to Egypt.
