Why The NSA Chief Wants To 'Collect It All'

For NSA Chief, Terrorist Threat Drives Passion To ‘Collect It All,’ Observers say -- Washington Post

In late 2005, as Iraqi roadside bombings were nearing an all-time peak, the National Security Agency’s newly appointed chief began pitching a radical plan for halting the attacks that were killing or wounding a dozen Americans a day.

At the time, more than 100 teams of U.S. analysts were scouring Iraq for snippets of electronic data that might lead to the bomb-makers and their hidden factories. But the NSA director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, wanted more than mere snippets. He wanted everything: Every Iraqi text message, phone call and e-mail that could be vacuumed up by the agency’s powerful computers.

“Rather than look for a single needle in the haystack, his approach was, ‘Let’s collect the whole haystack,’ ” said one former senior U.S. intelligence official who tracked the plan’s implementation. “Collect it all, tag it, store it. . . . And whatever it is you want, you go searching for it.”

Read more ....

My Comment: This approach probably works .... but at what price to our privacy? In short .... is security and safety worth the trade off to have less privacy? If it was up to me .... this 'trade-off' is not worth it.