The mass surveillance program, launched by President Bush, defended by President Obama, and now reportedly discontinued by President Trump, was spectacularly unsuccessful at achieving its stated goal of making Americans safer.
Susan Landau, a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, explains:
While initial statements by the intelligence community brought up 54 incidents in which the bulk collection played a role in thwarting terrorist attacks, a careful examination by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) in 2014 concluded that only a single case was uncovered by the bulk metadata program: that of Basaaly Moalin, who, with three others, arranged support of al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization in Somalia.
This is another sign that the 9/11 era is winding down. Even the original advocates of mass surveillance now admit that it did not and does not make Americans safer.
Source: Is Section 215 No Longer Worth the Effort? – Lawfare
