If NSA is disbanded, as some on this forum seem to want to see happen, who would keep an ear on the various bad guys in southwest Asia and the Middle East, or Russian armored divisions, the Russian Air and Naval Fleets? And what about China? North Korea? Drug traffickers? Some on this forum seem to think that the Agency has dropped its coverage of real targets and are now covering Big Pharm or Big Insurance.
I don't advocate it be disbanded. I advocate it be cleaned up.<
1. We have tens of thousand of employees in the NSA. Estimates on WikiPedia are between 30 and 40,000 employees, although it is classified. employee estimate / right column
Out of all these employees working full time to collect data, they couldn't uncover a thing about the 09/11 plot. Then can find out all they want about you and I.
2. They don't seem to understand who to bug. It seems to me foreign nationals from known terrorist nations would be fair game. They're not U. S. Citizens. They are clearly the biggest threat. So why not focus on them? That would make it a lot easier to catch them. Imagine not being able to tell that a number of them were taking flight school. There was no reason for them to do that here on education visas. Those visas cover people in college. A flight school would be an oddity. Wouldn't you think it was worth checking out? 3. The leadership thought nothing of recording our phone calls. The NSA's mandate is generally thought to be overseas. I believe a case could be made to keep tabs on foreign nationals here, but our citizens? Like you said, we need to listen to communications around the world. I'm not against the NSA. Some heads should certainly roll though. This was such an obvious breach of it's mandate, that I can't believe what was done didn't break some criminal codes.
Nah, Global warming. It is Our biggest threat, right secret agent boy?