Does the domestic spying program produce better results than FISA?
No. Recent reports have shown that the data from this wholesale surveillance did little more than commit FBI resources to follow up leads, “virtually all of [which], current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.” “We’d chase a number, find it’s a school teacher with no indication they’ve ever been involved in international terrorism – case closed,” said one former FBI official, who was aware of the program and the data it generated for the bureau. “After you get a thousand numbers and not one is turning up anything, you get some frustration.” Lowell Bergman, et al, Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends, NY Times, Jan. 17, 2005. Wasting counter-terrorism resources on innocent school teachers makes America no safer and less free.
