what do Americans think about the NSA scandal

[kandrathe]

If my company (a retail company, remember, not an IT specialist) can do it for about a million, the government can suck up tons more data for a couple billion, don't you think?

I actually think technology IS a part of the good solution for the terrorism issue, however, it needs to be implemented differently, and more by the service provider (airlines, for example).

Our local carrier, was Northwest (now absorbed into Delta) -- and, they had a piece of software called CAPPS that correctly identified 9 of the 19 WTC hijackers for additional screening (which didn't occur). Instead of A) fixing the problem in actually using the technology you have B) making the technology better -- they instead prevented even flight crew from wielding so much as a corkscrew. When the Shoe bomber struck, they made us take off our shoes. Whereas, the real problem Richard Reid introduced was that the first non-metal bombs were getting past metal detectors. But, rather than long queues of shoe-less passengers, how about building better bomb chemical sniffers?

How about instead of 55,000 TSA agents groping everyone, we instead implement a program where people are pre-screened days or weeks in advance. Yeah, if you walk up and buy a ticket the same day, you are going to get extra scrutiny.

People now voluntarily go though Global Entry and I've heard it's great. Why not just scale it back to a reasonable level for domestic flights? And how about having the flight crew, many of whom are former military pilots, also be trained in the use of side arms to defend the passengers?

The problem with both the TSA and NSA approach is that once you implement the umpteen billion Big Brother system, the only fish you'll catch are false positive innocent civilians bringing a crockpot home for a Christmas present or complete idiot wannabe extremists. This is why OBL was hard to catch -- he was not in his Pakistan bunker house broadcasting his location on 4square, or tweeting on trending hashtags. He and their network use trusted couriers, stolen cell phones for a few calls, or cash bought phone cards. They speak in riddles, such as the 911 chatter was "It's game day." Or, like from Top Secret :-) "Who do you favor in the Virginia Slims?" With the obvious response, "In women's tennis I always root against the heterosexuals."