This episodes highlights the problem that terrorism poses for Democratic governments. An even bigger problem than the deaths of civilians from terrorist attacks is the wider climate of fear that it creates. The 9/11 attacks where, unfortunatly, a sucess both in that they killed thousands of people and also in that they managed to permanently change the political climate in America and around the world. Fear always makes people more willing to give up their freedom in exchange for security, and politicians are willing to exploit this. Either for their own ends, or because they are misguided into thinking that their actions are morally correct, as the president here seems to think. And even when people disagree with those in power, they are trapped into supporting a authoritarian government, because even a corrupt government is better than the anarchy of not having any government at all.

(I can't believe they killed President Palmer! No wonder Dennis Haysbert is on that other show now.)

Throughout this season, with all its twists and shifted alliances, the recurring justification has been "I was doing what I thought was best for the country." The president, though possibly truly regretful of Palmer's assassination, rationalizes saving his own reputation both to himself and to his more ethically minded wife by saying it would destroy American's trust in their government (and credibility abroad.) This principle, in addition to the "following orders" mentality of many at CTU, allows each individual to blame the system rather than themselves. Jack and those he trusts are the only ones who consistently do the right thing regardless of the rules, and they are punished as traitors for doing so. The show confronts head on the issues of what it truly means to be a patriot, and how the term can be distorted to any end.

Last nights episode was about us finding out that jack bowers had a recording that framed the president for killing some guy who he blamed jack bowers for killing. This in all was to secure oil fields in asia which this guy had found out that the president had given terrorist nerve gas to perform terrorist attacks. Its kind of funny that through out the show any organization that is higher than another they are not allowed to ask questions about what is going on. Another thing that was funny was when this guy who is given the tape by jack who he thinks can be trusted turns on them and says that america's interest do have to be protectedjand it will hurt america if the nation finds out so he goes to ask the president to resign for his wrong doing. In my opinion I really do believe this is how the government works and I think that the patriot act just allows them to have more power and work more secretively in order to secure their interest.

The episode showed a lot of complex secrets, with numerous employees being restricted from certain information. It seems none of the characters can be trusted, and no one really knows the whole truth because everything's being hidden. These events are related to or in response to the patriot act. This is ironic because the patriotic act is supposed to enable the government to have unlimited access to information and expose any secrets to make the US safer, but evidently it resulted in a lot more secrecy (on the show).

This episode was a perfect example of how situations got out of hand post 9/11. The president knew that people were more inclined to believe that Islamic terrorists were behind certain actions, so therefore framing Jack as the killer allowed for the president to undergo his political scheme.

The patriot act : "Passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Act was formed in response to the terrorist attacks against the U.S., and dramatically expands the authority of U.S. law enforcement for the stated purpose of fighting terrorist acts in the United States and abroad." (wikipedia.org).
(From what I could understand) The elements of the Patriot Act were seen in this episode when President Logan didn't consult Gardner who was in charge of Homeland Security transfer, and still the president refuses to give any more information concerning supposed evidence that Jack killed David Palmer. Ok yeah thats all i could come up with.