Mass Surveillance Isn’t the Answer to Fighting Terrorism
►http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/opinion/mass-surveillance-isnt-the-answer-to-fighting-terrorism.html
It happens after ever terrorist attack: authorities & intelligence agencies complain about surveillance and encrypted communication. But,
indiscriminate bulk data sweeps have not been useful. In the more than two years since the N.S.A.’s data collection programs became known to the public, the intelligence community has failed to show that the phone program has thwarted a terrorist attack. Yet for years intelligence officials and members of Congress repeatedly misled the public by claiming that it was effective.
Often, the problem is not lack of information but means to act upon that information:
Most of the men who carried out the Paris attacks were already on the radar of intelligence officials in France and Belgium, where several of the attackers lived only hundreds of yards from the main police station, in a neighborhood known as a haven for extremists.
What’s more:
“Every time there is an attack, we discover that the perpetrators were known to the authorities,” said François Heisbourg[1], a [French] counterterrorism expert and former defense official. “What this shows is that our intelligence is actually pretty good, but our ability to act on it is limited by the sheer numbers.”
We all agree that
There is no dispute that law enforcement agencies should have the necessary powers to detect and stop attacks before they happen. But that does not mean unquestioning acceptance of ineffective and very likely unconstitutional tactics that reduce civil liberties without making the public safer.
#terrorism
#surveillance #mass_surveillance
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[1] ▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Heisbourg