US intelligence gathering budget $80 billion. Worth it?

[MannyGoldstein]

Given that the Russians told the US, repeatedly, that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was up to no good and they *still* couldn't keep a handle on him, methinks that the fancy spy stuff is nonsense.

If they can't see the broad side of a barn when told where to look, finding needles in haystacks seems utterly implausable.

That money could feed and shelter many, many victims of the banker wars, instead of being spent on silliness.

[HooptieWagon]

1. The $80 billion isn't intended to protect us from terrorists...

...it's intended to protect the government from us.

[scarletwoman]

2. Maybe, but I think what it REALLY protects are the profits of the private contractors.

[neverforget]

3. But they stopped some terra plots!

Or so we're told....

[HooptieWagon]

4. Supposedly 20.

3 of them were prevented by alert citizens (underwear bomber), & 17 were FBI sting operations. So the vast surveillence network failed to stop one single terrorist attack.
However, I'm pretty sure it was very useful in monitoring the activities of OWS, Keystone protestors, anti-Monsanto activists, Code Pink, and the like.