The Patriot Act really needs an amendment that after x years, I’d say 1, that they have to report on foiled plots. Otherwise with this one almost succeeding and the Boston attack it makes the whole thing seem pointless.
I have a feeling they are mostly looking at money flow and travel plans in a general way and not focusing on the (many) legit terrorists.
From what I’ve read about the FISA court and PA, these agency are pretty much allowed to operate with a virtual rubber stamp through the FISA court doing nearly anything they damn well want with only their word that “we need this and it fits the law.”
I’m sorry, but we’ve already been treated to how this Administration treats respect for the law, motives/purpose and goals. Look at the recent court case that states have brought against implementation of Obama’s nebulous amnesty by non-enforcement. Government lawyers of the DOJ have blatantly lied to the judge hearing the case and have TOLD him they are going to follow Obama’s orders instead of the law!
Take it back several months to revelations about NSA gathering ‘only metadata’ about calls under PA and then jump to Drudge a couple days ago about NSA working feverishly on efficient, fast speech recognition with search term capability. Take a look at what they’ve built out west with the Mega Memory Death Star in Utah - metadata? Hell no!
IMO, the real skinny is that I believe they collect EVERYTHING ON THIS WHOLE PLANET that is electronic communication of any physical layer type. They get it ALL and they lie to FISA, any judge they have to, to the American people, and even a President when they have to.