Conclusive Evidence: The NSA's expanded powers NEVER protected us from any terror plots.

[kpete]

The War on Terror's Jedi Mind Trick
National-security officials insist new violations of privacy are essential for keeping Americans safe from terror—but there's no evidence the programs have stopped any attacks.

JULIAN SANCHEZDEC 23 2013, 4:49 PM ET

A Republican-appointed judge and President Obama’s own handpicked Surveillance Review Group both came to the same conclusion last week: The National Security Agency’s controversial phone-records program has been of little real value to American security. Yet its defenders continue to insist that it is necessary, clinging desperately to long-debunked claims about foiled terror plots. Their stubbornness fits a decade-long pattern of fear trumping evidence whenever the word “terrorism” is uttered—a pattern it is time to finally break.

Since the disclosure of the NSA’s massive domestic phone-records database, authorized under a tortured reading of the Patriot Act’s Section 215 authority to obtain business records, intelligence officials and their allies in Congress have claimed it plays a vital role in protecting Americans from “dozens” of terror attacks. But as the expert panel Obama appointed to review the classified facts concluded, in a report released Wednesday, that just isn’t true.

“Our review suggests that the information contributed to terrorist investigations by the use of section 215 telephony meta-data was not essential to preventing attacks,” the report found, “and could readily have been obtained in a timely manner using conventional section 215 orders.”

In other words, instead of vacuuming up sensitive information about the call patterns of millions of innocent people, the government could have followed the traditional approach of getting orders for specific suspicious numbers. As for those “dozens” of attacks, the review groups found that the NSA program “generated relevant information in only a small number of cases, and there has been no instance in which NSA could say with confidence that the outcome would have been different without the section 215 telephony meta-data program.”


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MORE:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/the-war-on-terrors-jedi-mind-trick/282620/

[cantbeserious]

1. Thank You For Sharing The Facts

eom

[Aerows]

2. Yes, but how dare anyone tell the American public that.

How dare the American people learn how their freedom is eroded and their taxdollars being squandered.

I'll bet they have boxes in their garage, too.

[HereSince1628]

3. How dare they tell our enemies? Security is a lot about head-fakes

and the NSA will believe this just exposed our weakness and encourages the evil-doers.

[sabrina 1]

5. Security/our government, is NOT supposed to 'head fake' its own people by spying on them.

Let the NSA explain, again, why, in order to 'head fake' actual enemies by spying on all Americans.
Good luck with that.

[HereSince1628]

8. I'm just say'n you can bet this is likely where the NSA's argument lies.

[Aerows]

6. If an organization remains unchecked

it gets a sense of self-righteousness and entitlement to power. That's exactly what happened here. No one is above the law. Lack of transparency is what is going to end up being their undoing. They couldn't keep themselves in check, and now other people are going to do it for them.

I'm sure it sucks being an NSA employee right about now, but it sucks twice as badly being an unaffiliated IT person right about now. People are pissed that their privacy was violated.

Our "enemies" aren't nearly as put out as our own citizens. When you are as bad as your "enemies", then you aren't really an enemy at all - you are working towards the same purpose of destroying trust in government.

[HereSince1628]

12. Yes, very true.

Yet, there has long been fear of a fifth column here at home. It was a very big deal during my early childhood.

Some of those who have it have been climbing up the GS ladder since the days of paranoid Richard Nixon.

[sabrina 1]

4. Liberals were right, again. I remember a few months ago when we questioned just how

'collecting data' on everyone in the country, and even the world, could possibly be used to catch terrorists. I remember apologists providing convoluted explanations as to how it could be used, none of which made any more sense than the spying itself.

I remember those who refused to believe this was all being done to 'fight terror' being called 'Obama haters, although what that had to do with anything is anyone's guess, among other things.

I am so used to Liberals turning out to be right about so many things that it all just rolls off like water off a duck when each new outrage is uncovered and all we have to do is wait and sooner or later, we find out that Liberals were right again.

I think it's time now to put real Liberal Democrats into office considering how correct and wise their judgement has proven to be, rather those who made such gross errors, like voting for a war that had zero to do with terror eg, or for the GOT when most of US knew it was all a big scam.

[HereSince1628]

7. Prevent, maybe not, but it certainly makes sweeping up suspects' associates effortless.

Not that they couldn't get a warrant to do whatever once they have a suspects phone number.

[Aerows]

10. The NSA looks like it is run

by a bunch of self-righteous, egotistical idiots. The only thing they have effortlessly accomplished is making the public mistrust them, and making it look like they waste a shitload of resources to no avail. When tax payer dollars go to some yahoo to play World of Warcraft, what did you think would be the fallout? Applause?

[HereSince1628]

13. When the IRS takes all that money...it must be spent on something

and the NSA seems dedicated to zero-budgeting.

[Aerows]

14. And it is high time

they got their budget reined in. If you can cut off food stamps, you can cut off funding for an organization that acts against the Constitution and best interest of the public.

[HereSince1628]

15. Well, really, we can WANT to cut off it's funding, but

NSA probably won't let us.

They didn't miss that lesson about organizational advancement from J. Edgar Hoover, I am pretty certain they have the goods on some folks.

[Aerows]

16. Here is what I think

Threaten to cut off the pension of one or a dozen of them, and it wouldn't benefit them to blackmail anyone. No negotiations with terrorists. Hell, if they had something on me, I'd step up to the plate and state it. That would be seen as an honorable action by the general public, though it might be blood in the water to enemies. But then, your enemies are going to smell it anyway, and have their own failings to deal with as well.

No one likes to be blackmailed. All it takes is enough people in the room together discussing how they are being blackmailed for it to come to a head.

ETA: And I think DiFi is at the center of this. She didn't get wealthy because of her pleasant personality.

[HereSince1628]

17. Yes, getting out in front of blackmail is good.

[sabrina 1]

22. No, it doesn't, did you read the article at all? It has done NOTHING to catch terrorists, and that

is because it was never intended for that. What a racket, to quote a great American hero the 'War on Terror' is. Billions and billions of dollars going to these private Security Contractors, al Friends of Bush, all Right Wingers and back when Democrats were opposed to the scam there never really was any doubt about the purpose of these Security Contractor friends of Bush and then appointing them to positions of power in Congres, Clapper eg, Friend of Bush, who could demand billions for their FORMER Security Corps, Clapper, from Security Contractor, Booz Allen eg.

What a scam it all is. And what a shame that some Democrats know the truth but now try to defend it.

[Aerows]

9. I'm totally sick of the idea that Snowden harmed security

The NSA harmed security because now we know they can't be trusted. If your goal is to erode trust, the NSA did it in spades, buckets and backhoe's full.

They brought it upon themselves. Everyone has to deal with the consequences of their arrogance along with them, too. Make no mistake - hubris is what brought all of this down on their own heads and everyone in the IT industry's along with them.

[Turbineguy]

11. Well, since the terror plots

were there to benefit PNAC, this comes as no surprise.

[WillyT]

18. K & R !!!

[RainDog]

19. k&r n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

20. Kick and

[hootinholler]

21. K&R hoping it doesn't get lost in the gender war n/t

[sabrina 1]

23. Lol, we shouldn't let it, because a lot of those distractions seem to appear when important issues

are at stake. I love how they think that the 'left' can be so easily manipulated with a couple of issues, which we KNOW they could not care less about.

[hootinholler]

24. Hey Nice to see you!

Hoping you have a very Merry Merriment!

That's an interesting notion there.

[sabrina 1]

25. Thank you, hope you have a great holiday season also.

Well, it's just that we know they always drag out a couple of issues whenever they want to turn the 'left' against someone who is actually having an impact. Best way to destroy them, in THEIR opinion, is to accuse them of being anti-women and/or gays. So sick of women and gays being used for political purposes by people, talking about politicians here to be clear, when they vote against everything that would make women's and other minorities' lives easier.

Just my opinion from a lot of observervation.

[indepat]

26. An Act of Congress cannot constitutionally nullify the Constitution in whole or in part, no matter

what zealots claim.