NSA Disinformation: There's No Evidence That Massive Data Collection Thwarts Terror Attacks

[JustExtreme]

[quote]Two weeks after Edward Snowden’s first revelations about sweeping government surveillance, President Obama shot back. “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany,” Obama said during a visit to Berlin in June. “So lives have been saved.”In the months since, intelligence officials, media outlets, and members of Congress from both parties all repeated versions of the claim that NSA surveillance has stopped more than 50 terrorist attacks. The figure has become a key talking point in the debate around the spying programs.

“Fifty-four times this and the other program stopped and thwarted terrorist attacks both here and in Europe — saving real lives,” Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said on the House floor in July, referring to programs authorized by a pair of post-9/11 laws. “This isn’t a game. This is real.”

But there's no evidence that the oft-cited figure is accurate. The NSA itself has been inconsistent on how many plots it has helped prevent and what role the surveillance programs played. The agency has often made hedged statements that avoid any sweeping assertions about attacks thwarted.[/quote]

Source: [url]http://www.alternet.org/nsa-disinfor...terror-attacks[/url]

[Jeep-Eep]

Unsurprising development, much?

[SIRIUS]

Shocker

[Reshy]

But who cares, it's not like the politicians are paying for it.

[bord2tears]

URL is broken.

[JustExtreme]

[url]http://www.alternet.org/nsa-disinformation-theres-no-evidence-massive-data-collection-thwarts-terror-attacks[/url]

Can't edit my post right now (appears blank when I go to edit) so here you go

[dai]

what is alternet and why are some of the front page articles just this side of "local mom's remedy that the doctors don't want you to know!"

also to be fair let's think about the fact they're asking for evidence of thwarted attacks from the NSA- let's just give all of the secrets about how they (allegedly) find out shit so the people that they (allegedly) are trying to stop can better avoid it

[catbarf]

Does this surprise anyone? Kind of hard to have public evidence when everything you do is classified. There wasn't any evidence the CIA intervened in the Iranian hostage scandal until it was publicly revealed in 1997, now it's a movie called Argo.

[JustExtreme]

[QUOTE=daijitsu;42632742]what is alternet and why are some of the front page articles just this side of "local mom's remedy that the doctors don't want you to know!"

also to be fair let's think about the fact they're asking for evidence of thwarted attacks from the NSA- let's just give all of the secrets about how they (allegedly) find out shit so the people that they (allegedly) are trying to stop can better avoid it[/QUOTE]

Alternet is primarily an aggregation outfit AFAIK

[SgtCr4zyGunz]

[QUOTE=daijitsu;42632742]what is alternet and why are some of the front page articles just this side of "local mom's remedy that the doctors don't want you to know!"

also to be fair let's think about the fact they're asking for evidence of thwarted attacks from the NSA- let's just give all of the secrets about how they (allegedly) find out shit so the people that they (allegedly) are trying to stop can better avoid it[/QUOTE]

until they can provide hard statistics they're just blowing smoke. vague comments about terrorism do not justify mass metadata collection.