Detailed Study Suggests NSA Rarely Useful In Stopping Terrorism
from the but-fear! dept
While we've already seen multiple detailed analyses of why the NSA's bulk collection of email data under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act hasn't been particularly helpful in stopping any real terrorist attacks on the US, there are still other NSA programs as well. The folks over at the New America Foundation have put out a detailed new report looking at whether any of the NSA's programs have been effective. The report finds, exactly as everyone else has, that the Section 215 effort was only helpful in finding one guy who sent some money to Somalia. However, more importantly, it also looks at the other big NSA program, the one that comes under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act which includes (among other things) the PRISM program that got a lot of attention. Once again, the evidence of 702's usefulness is fairly minimal. The report finds that it was used in less than 5% of investigations of people charged with terrorism since 9/11.The full report looks at all 225 individuals who were either part of Al Qaeda or an associated group and charged with terrorism since 9/11. In looking over every plot they were involved in, you see that much more traditional means of catching terrorists were involved in almost every case. There are community/family tips, informants, other non-NSA intelligence, routine law enforcement, self-disclosed by publicizing his own extremist activity, "suspicious activity" reports... and of course, plots that weren't actually prevented. There is, to be fair, a large number of plots where the discovery is from "unclear" means -- and it's entirely possible that some of those were discovered under the Section 702 programs. However, at the very least, this calls into question just how valuable either of these key NSA efforts really are.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: 9/11, fisa amendments act, nsa, patriot act, section 215, section 702, terrorism
Companies: new america foundation
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
It makes sense there's not stopping it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Techdirt: preventing terrorist plots since 1997. Eat it NSA!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Facebook prevents terrorists. Maybe the government ought to throw money at them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
First, despite Mike's blithe assurance that the Aereo case would drag on, he's WRONG yet again:
US Supreme Court to hear media barons versus TV upstart Aereo tout suite
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/13/supreme_court_agrees_to_hear_aereo_case_toot_suite/
And Mike's support of Google for its no or limited patent stance is turning out betrayed by his precious:
Sniff, sniff, what's that burning smell? Oh, it's Google's patent-filing office working flat out
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/14/google_hits_the_patent_bigtime_reports/
I particularly like the next; nobody in the real world likes weenies cutting in:
Oh those crazy Frenchies! Parisian cabbies smash up Uber-booked rival ride
Votre app américain sale n'a pas été cherché ici, imbécile!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/14/french_cabbies_revolt_against_uber/
All the news you saw last week on other sites, re-written to cherry pick points that fit Mike's agenda.
04:04:20[f-17-2]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
That's incredibly sexist, so I'm reporting any post made with this assertion. Period.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
Like John, I didn't care enough to follow up on it. I don't read their posts here, why go to their blog to not read them?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
Oh those crazy Frenchies! Parisian cabbies smash up Uber-booked rival ride
Votre app américain sale n'a pas été cherché ici, imbécile!
Are you really cheering the malicious destruction of private property owned by those who simply choose to compete in a previously monopolized business?
This is a new low, even for you, Blue. I guess the moral standards that you attempted to impart on the unwashed masses here are as hypocritical as the rest of your rhetoric.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Guess posting more interesting links is all I can do to protest this re-hash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
1.3%
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
numbers.....
cause most of them pretty much implying that NSA does more than the old-school investigation when going against terrorism... Judging the figures given in this topic.
about stopping the plot? Unless you're a Seer that can see the future to rewrite it.... then you're an idiot trying to play fortune teller saying your PREDICTIONS are 100% accurate when a weather forecaster got better accuracy rate than yours.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]