Despite the facts that i) 9/11 occurred while the system was "blinking red" using then-available intelligence, and ii) opinion by informed Senators and the President's NSA Commission Report conclusion that in the past seven years, bulk intelligence gathering has prevented exactly zero terrorist attacks, perennial war-monger and authoritarian, Elliott Abrams, thinks we need to "relearn" a lesson about allowing the NSA to continue to "connect the dots."
In an opinion published by Abrams this morning on the Council for Foreign Relations blog, NSA: These are the Dots, he says the rise of Constitutional, legal and privacy concerns against bulk collection are "hysteria" and that there are two ways of stopping it:
One is leadership. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Diane Feinstein and House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers are supplying some, refusing to be stampeded. Will the President supply any? Will he explain to Americans what the facts are, and why it would be dangerous to join the stampede? So far, we do not know.
The second thing that could stop or reverse this drive to prevent NSA from doing its work would be another terrorist attack. Then, just as after 9/11, there would be calls for more active intelligence gathering, and we would find ourselves asking “who were the fools who stopped us from collecting the data we need? Who stopped us from collecting and connecting the dots?”
Oh, sure ... Abrams does add that it would be "tragic," but to even intimate, as Abrams does, that another attack would be a constructive solution to the rising opposition to NSA spying makes his statement sound much more like "Nice country you have there. It would a shame if ..."
Here's looking squarely at you, Elliott, should anything of the sort happen to occur.