The NSA is gathering together the largest amount of evidence in the history of mankind, to be used against citizens who will be charged with crimes not yet defined.
How’s that for paranoid? (But I believe it to be true.)
And all they have to do is publicly prosecute a few hundred “American terrorists” who were caught by the NSA and half the country will say “That’s great! I’m happy they caught them. I’m not worried because I haven’t done anything wrong.” And guess what. That’s exactly what the “American terrorists” believed.