14 DAY TRIAL // One of the main arguments that the NSA and United States lawmakers have brought ever since it was revealed that the intelligence agency practiced bulk collection of phone records was that this had helped prevent terrorist attacks. A new study, however, proves that’s not the case.
The study was created by the New America Foundation, a nonprofit organization from Washington. It takes into account 225 terrorism cases inside the United States since September 11, 2001, the Washington Post reports.
The findings listed in the report back statements coming from the White House review panel that was put in charge of going over the NSA’s surveillance programs – there’s no proof that the mass metadata collection program had any contribution in the fight against terrorism.
There’s a single case in the entire report that indicates that this particular program was used to combat terrorism. A cab driver in San Diego, called Basaaly Moalin, was convicted for sending money to a terrorist group in Somalia. Three of his co-conspirators were also sent to jail. However, the case involves no direct threat or attack against the United States.
In nearly 60 percent of all 225 cases, investigations against those accused of jihadist terrorism were conducted through traditional methods, while for another 27.6 percent, it’s unclear what method initiated the investigation.
“The overall problem for U.S. counterterrorism officials is not that they need vaster amounts of information from the bulk surveillance programs, but that they don’t sufficiently understand or widely share the information they already possess that was derived from conventional law enforcement and intelligence techniques,” the report reads.
The study coming from the New America Foundation is signed by several names, among which Peter Bergen, the NGO’s director, who is also a known expert on national security. He is also a journalist and author and he produced the first televised interview with Osama bin Laden for CNN.