The National Security Agency — so secret it is jokingly referred to as “No Such Agency” — has “wrapped the earth in a spectral web of electronic surveillance,” says Patrick Radden Keefe, author of the book, Chatter. Every three hours, the agency’s spy satellites pull in enough information to fill the Library of Congress. Its main antenna farms — one in West Virginia and the other in Washington state — can capture all international communications with the U.S. The NSA, which is the largest employer of mathematicians in the world, can then “mine” the data to detect suspicious patterns of communication that indicate the possibility of terrorist ties or activity. During the Clinton administration, the NSA reportedly inaugurated a sophisticated electronic eavesdropping system called Echelon. Though the NSA has never acknowledged Echelon’s existence, numerous press reports indicate that the system monitors telecommunications all over the world for words that might signal discussion of terrorist plots.
So what you’re saying is the last time anyone took effective action to defuse terrorism was during the Clinton administration?
