The NSA’s “Lone Wolf” Justification for Mass Spying Is B.S.

The NSA’s main justification for Constitution-shredding mass surveillance on all Americans is 9/11.

In reality:

Top security experts say that mass spying interferes with U.S. counter-terror efforts (more here and here)

American presidents agree

The chairs of the 9/11 Commission say that the spying has gone way too far (and that the Director of National Intelligence should be prosecuted for lying about the spying program)

Top officials say that the claim that the government could only have stopped the attacks if it had been able to spy on Americans is wholly false

The NSA was already conducting mass surveillance prior to 9/11

But we want to focus on another angle: the unspoken assumption by the NSA that we need mass surveillance because “lone wolf” terrorists don’t leave as many red flags as governments, so the NSA has to spy on everyone to find the needle in the haystack...

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/12/saudis.html