Has anyone done a return on investment analysis for this gargantuan data collection system?
I can’t imagine how much money several hundred acres of servers costs, but it can’t be cheap. Exactly how many terrorists has this allowed us to capture?
I don't think 'Divide By Zero' is an allowable mathematical construct.
-——Exactly how many terrorists has this allowed us to capture-——
The whole point is to secretly observe enemies. There can be no ROI calculations because of the need for secrecy . In war secrecy, intense secrecy, is justified. To argue otherwise is just plain foolish.
There is no evidence at all of misuse of the meta data. My sense is that federal and local meta data is obtained outside the NSA with no warrant. That info can be used to get a warrant with adequate probable cause.
Collection and use of third party metadata is not a violation of the constitution.
Not to get off track, but that reminds me of how I shake my head everytime I hear Obama talking about "investments in our future". Government never met a negative ROI it didn't love. And that's the beauty of it - the program thus never has to go away, it just needs more money thrown at it.
At least one. They used the phone records of the Boston Marathon bombers to identify the third throat slasher in the previous murders.
Then they shot him eighteen times when the eight hour interrogation was slowing down.