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It's very simple: there would be mass panic if they showed how successful they've been. If they take down a terrorist plot every 8 months, this means that there

It's very simple: there would be mass panic if they showed how successful they've been. If they take down a terrorist plot every 8 months, this means that there'd be a continual cycle of racial profiling and panic if made public. Look how crazy and destructive the internet got after the Boston bombing. If the US government publicized successful terrorist takedowns, do you honestly think it would be any different? One can't observe (as a US citizen) a lack of successes and estimate whether the program is working or not, because that information would be intentionally hidden. It's an unknown as to whether (1) there are more plots than we know of and (2) the program is working in capturing and preventing these plots, and they remain hidden to us after.

flyinRyan 13y ago
>It's very simple: there would be mass panic if they showed how successful they've been. We don't know that. But I suspect if they really were stopping lots of plots people might question why there are people so desperate to kill us. Nonsense like "hate us for our freedom" isn't going to hold up long if we are constantly getting attack. Having said that, I don't believe this is the case. Based on what the government has shown (entrapment cases) I'm sure they'd blast it out on every station if they managed to stop a real terrorist plot. >One can't observe (as a US citizen) a lack of successes and estimate whether the program is working or not, because that information would be intentionally hidden. And one can't observe if my anti-tiger rock is actually protecting me from being killed by tigers. But I'd still call you a moron if you paid billions for my rock and gave up a ton of your freedoms to have it.