And Echelon and Room 641A were widely known before Snowden. And when the Boston Bombers struck (not long before Snowden), the public was complaining about "How

And Echelon and Room 641A were widely known before Snowden. And when the Boston Bombers struck (not long before Snowden), the public was complaining about "How did the government not stop them before they did it? They see everything on the Internet!". People were pointing out that the government couldn't do anything because they were just two guys who didn't talk about it on the Internet, not because the government wasn't watching.