The perpetrators of the September 11 attacks were foreigners, members of a foreign organization, and the U.S. government has taken that as grounds for drawing some quite sharp distinctions of Americans and the protections accorded to others who are legally in the United States. Section 214 of the USA Patrior Act, for example, alters existing legislation concerning wire-ta]]ing so that "investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution.