PBS: Spying On The Home Front

I just happened to record this show last week and finally watched it tonight.

One of the most understated absurdities in the interviews was the following line – which came after repeated admissions by FBI officials that nearly every single existing database record on every single transaction from every single person in Vegas at the time HAD been handed over to and data mined by the FBI – and yet – not a single lead or hint of suspicious activity by any one in Vegas at that time warranted any actual involvement by law enforcement. …and, it turned out that the initial “intelligence” was faulty to begin with – meaning that there never was a threat of terrorist attacks in Vegas on New Year’s Eve.

ELLEN KNOWLTON, FBI Chief, Las Vegas, 2002-06: I just tell people that we made every effort to safeguard the privacy of everyone whose records were accessed. There was no breach. The information was closely safeguarded.

Really?:

• The information was safeguarded by being turned over illegally?
• The privacy of those whose records were accessed was not violated?
• The fact that the FBI obtained nearly blanket data covering > 1/4 million innocent Americans in one city over one week doesn’t mean that a breach occurred?
• And just who was actually safeguarding the information?

Teaser:

“So many people in America think this does not affect them. They’ve been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists. … I think that’s wrong. … Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs,” former CIA Assistant General Counsel Suzanne Spaulding tells FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith in Spying on the Home Front.

Watch the entire show online at pbs.org.