NSA phone surveillance program cost $100 million and yielded one major investigation: report
You have no idea of the intelligence data that NSA produces and the value of those data to us and our country.
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@FearlessFly You will never know of the range and value of those data. That is the way it is supposed to be. You and all of are have been receiving the value of those data and have been for many, many years.
@wordywalt It is hard not to notice that no evidence to directly dispute the article has been offered.
The problem is when there is a differential value to some of us and others of us, and when that differential is large, and especially when one of those values is negative.
@FearlessFly the Intel community can be a scary place. The NSA does produce massive data from multiple sources. How much is really useful is a matter of opinion. I don't have any sources, only knowledge having worked military Intel in the late 70's and early 80's and kept up with some who stayed in or continued working it elsewhere - someone I know got in trouble with the FBI for using a satellite to see who was at his now ex wife's house. No prosecution, just a reprimand (That was about 9 years ago).
I remember when I was in, we were told that 10 percent of calls from NYC down to D.C. were checked on if only for a few seconds. (I knew a guy who did that - met him at SAC).
That said, I know how good surveillance was in my time 40 years ago and just knowing the growth of tech I can only imagine that the shit seen on movies now is probably pretty close.
Add on: in defense of the Weapons of Mass Destruction debacle from Bush II, know that there are often conflicting assessments and from what I believe, most in Intel didn't think there were any weapons. I think Cheney fed the "minority report" to his puppets.
Also: the government will lie to those doing the spying. This came out publicly in 85, and when some people I know found it and sent the info and pictures to the community, within three days it was squashed. An atomic bomb was set off the coast of South Africa in 79. We were told - nope not a bomb but phosphorescent fish rising to the surface and then told, not to destroy, but send all info to D.C., not Hawaii where we normally sent stuff. That spot on the Indian Ocean would have taken most of the phosphorescent fish in the sea.
@worldlywalt how would you feel if your investment advisor came to you with the " Again, it is up to prove that the negative outweighs the positive" when you raise some concerns about your portfolio? What if he told you to do your homework?
I am confident the NSA is doing a lot of great work, but not all of their programs can be great, and if they are truly cutting edge, that means a significant fraction of experimental programs will fail and that's OK, but cancel that shit and do something different.
The real purpose of the program is to spy on Americans who might dissent from the system, ie. leftists or anarchists and make them afraid of the government. Catching foreign terrorists was never the purpose.