Seems to me that we just caught a glimpse of how well this works in the sniper "investigation." They will not find one terrorist, but they will be able to terrorize innocent citizens who exhibit patterns that fit their profiles--profiles that are completely off base.
And what do you think people like Hillary would do with such power? She certainly isn't interested in catching terrorists!
Yep. Such a database, coupled with the general ineptness of the feds, would be worthless as a counter-terrorist tool. But if you just want to do a name search or SSN search, it would work just fine for dishing up a lot of info on the intended target.