The NY Times reports that, by swamping the FBI with thousands of dead-end leads, the National Security Agency made it difficult for law enforcement to do its job in the months after 9/11:
In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month.
But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.
F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency that the unfiltered information was swamping investigators. The spy agency was collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americans’ international communications and conducting computer searches of phone and Internet traffic. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americans’ privacy.
Some of the stuff in this article is incredible. It’s like a bad spy TV show:
In bureau field offices, the N.S.A. material continued to be viewed as unproductive, prompting agents to joke that a new bunch of tips meant more “calls to Pizza Hut,” one official, who supervised field agents, said.
The only good news here is that even people inside the government are so frustrated with the total incompetence of the people at the top that they’re apparently feeling freer than ever to talk to the press. And well they should. America needs to know that the administration that claims to be just what America needs to keep it safe is in fact not able to do the job.
