So tell me, did all that data collecting prevent the Boston Marathon Bombing?

[deminks]

Did it prevent the mass murder in Sandy Hook?

Did it prevent all the Ricin letters from being mailed?

What can you do with all that data?

They say it is keeping America safe. Safe from what, exactly? Seems to me that there is not a lot of bang for the buck here.

Meanwhile, is it building safe rooms for school children in Oklahoma? Is it doing anything for gun control? Is it rebuilding bridges and highways?

And, as in the previous AP "scandal", I repeat, where was the MEdia when the Patriot Act was passed and passed and passed and extended forever and passed?

/rant off.

(Good morning, Agent Mike )

[Jenoch]

1. They didn't need data collecting

to prevent the Boston bombing. All they needed to do is to listen to the Russians when they said that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a radical muslim.

It is likely that Adam Lanza did not make any telephone calls regarding his plans.

[graham4anything]

3. Being that the plan was for July 4, even the 2 thrill kill fame seekers didnot know it was that day

[Myrina]

14. Telephone calls, no but Lanza supposedly had a laptop ...

... and if the ISP's are also harvesting info, they could have noticed a pattern.
If this program is truly intended only to track "bad guys".

[graham4anything]

2. false analogy

it's the argument the NRA folks use that is also false

Even if it saves ONE life in the next decade, that is one life saved.

The rest also needs to be done.

Of course we need to ban all 100 % of all bullets and guns from the hands of private citizens.
That is obviously what is needed.

But saving 100 today still saves 100 today.

It's a net positive.

[Dreamer Tatum]

9. I guess the NSA gets to choose which life gets saved, huh? nt

[Daniel537]

4. What makes you think their looking for that kind of stuff, anyway? n/t

[B2G]

6. That's exactly the kind of stuff they say they're looking for

If not that, then what?

[Daniel537]

7. Lol, just because the govt. says it don't make it so.

Who the hell knows what they're looking for? We're just getting to know about this right now. But trusting the govt. is just about the dumbest thing one could do in this situation.

[B2G]

13. On that, we agree completely. n/t

[leveymg]

5. There's a better way to target terrorists.

There's a better way to target terrorists. Don't allow them into the US, even the ones the CIA considers to be its own terrorists: e.g., the WTC '93 bombers, the 9/11 attack cell; the numerous and sundry al-Qaeda operatives attracted by Anwar al-Awlaki, and the Tsarnaev brothers. We really have to more closely control the CIA's own operatives, because these account for 90% of all the fatal mass casualty terrorist attacks in the US during the last several decades.

[Rex]

8. You find all the conversations that could be incriminating

and then file them away for future use, maybe.

[treestar]

10. It is hard to say unless we could get figures on foiled terrorist attacks

Since they don't happen, we don't know what they would have been. Nothing would have been foolproof and some attacks will still occur - Tamerlan and his brother were not connected to Al Qaeda, so they were loose cannons.

I would like to know what they can get from that data before deciding it's not worth doing. It is not wiretaps, just records of calls, and the people making the calls are not identified - so what do they get out of it and how might it be helping with heading off terrorists?

As for Ashcroft, he was just another liar using fear from 911 to get things he wanted to see anyway, before 911, for which there was no political will. After 911, the right exploited the new political will for all they were worth.

[Aerows]

11. No

Because stopping "terrorists" isn't what this is for.

[KharmaTrain]

12. They Can Datamine Til Their Hard Drives Explode...

...they can collect information about every call, email and any other form of communication they want but it means zero until someone actually tries to interpret it. To think that the government is listening on every call and reading every email is super tin foiliness...the volume of data is so great it would require virtually millions of agents and warrants to keep up. Add to this the decrease at various subservience agencies thanks to the sequester.

That said, it's good this issue has once again poked its ugly head. This isn't some new revelation...the Patriot Act and FISA laws...the ones goons like Paulbot Jr. are now having the vapors about...have been expanded and nary a rushpublican voted to curtail it or even investigate it. It was far more expedient to try to repeal Obamacare again. Now it's yet another "scandal"...joined in by those on the left who also find comfort in blaming the President for every evil that exists. If the rushpublicans are so poutraged, then let's get a bill passed in the House tomorrow in curtailing the President's authority and then put pressure on the Senate. Wanna bet that ain't gonna happen. It's more kabuki theater...our "privacy" has long been compromised...when you pick up the phone or tap on a puter and hit enter it's public domain...it has been for a long, long time.