A new report by Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center puts in perspective just how important when it comes to domestic terrorism:
A recent study by the Institute of Homeland Security Solutions (“HSS Study”) confirms this common sense conclusion. The HSS Study examined 86 terrorist plots against U.S. targets from 1999 to 2009 to determine the types of information that led to their discovery. More than 80 percent of the foiled plots were discovered “via observations from law enforcement or the general public.” By contrast, intelligence reporting was the source of initial clues in just 19 percent of the cases that have been publicly reported. While the HSS Study did not discount the importance of intelligence gathering, it emphasized “the importance of more basic processes, such as ensuring that investigative leads are properly pursued, which unclassified reporting suggests have foiled an order of magnitude more cases.”
I think this also raises questions about the effectiveness of the use of dragnet surveillance methods, although the key term here is "unclassified reporting." Sometimes hard to know the role such methods have played since their use is often kept secret. The paradox is that because they're so secret, politicians can portray them as inherently necessary for reasons they can tell you but that are Very Very Serious.
