Instead of ineffectual NSA-style piling of data on everything, intelligence agencies should focus on data analysis and detective techniques to prevent the same type of terror attacks that took place in France, former CIA officer Ray McGovern told RT.
RT: Millions of people came out to show their unity against terrorism. But do you think now that they will be more open to stricter, more stringent anti-terror laws?
Ray McGovern: The stoking of fear: “Be afraid, be very afraid” is typical of what happened after 9/11 in our country. I don’t think it helps. I think it inspires the worst in us – the spirit of vengeance. And when I hear the talk about increasing surveillance measures – it is fact, not interpretation that there were enough surveillance measures against these two from the beginning. They were on a ‘No Fly’ list, they were communicating in unencrypted telephone conversations as far as we know. There was everything in place necessary to get these guys – why they weren’t gotten is really a puzzle. Now there are lots of conspiracy theories, saying the French let them do this. I can’t buy that. It is more typical of Western intelligence services to be just really dumb, really ineffectual. And if you need proof of that, read James Rison’s latest book, when he talks about the fellows that ran the place where I used to work for 27 years were just completely clowns and could not cope with the challenges that they faced after the Cold War.
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