US surveillance programs failed to detect any of the attempted attacks

Evidence

The United States continues to be a target of terrorist attacks but largely has been spared tragic consequences by the incompetence of most of the terrorists carrying out the plots. As we have seen, these attacks involved two would-be suicide bombers on planes headed for Detroit and Florida and a botched attempt on New York’s Times Square. All these attempts failed because the terrorists were unable to detonate the explosives. The tragic completed attack at the Boston Marathon killed three and maimed dozens more. The massive surveillance program did not detect these plots. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2336

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with the legal critique of mass surveillance in current civil liberties discourse; also resonates with the moral-disengagement frame — the program’s justifications rested on fear-driven appeals rather than demonstrated efficacy.
• SEED: Article angle: ‘the haystack defense’ as moral disengagement — how fear-based justifications outlive evidence that the program doesn’t work.