Yeah he should've martyred himself when those who actually ran these programs got away with it completely. And it's amazing that you attack Russia for being what it is, an authoritarian country ran by its intelligence agencies... While using the exact same rhetoric that is always used to justify authoritarianism. Actually, you might very well be surprised by how much you'd agree with the Russian government if we go by your last sentence.
I hope you realize that all of this was justified because of the war on terror. It had nothing to do with Russia. They weren't going against a super power (which you could at least argue might justify the means), they were trying to find boogeyman terrorists that may or may not have existed in the US. If as you said they did their damn job, they wouldn't need to cast such a wide net like they did with their surveillance. And we would also have had more example of said surveillance actually saving lifes or leading to results.
What we do have instead is countless example of suspects being listed as at risk but nothing being done since the lists are so huge and impossible to act upon. it's not even a form of survivorship biais either; authorities are very very happy to announce that they thwarted some terrorist plot before it happened. Its just that it happens very rarely.
I hope you realize that all of this was justified because of the war on terror. It had nothing to do with Russia. They weren't going against a super power (which you could at least argue might justify the means), they were trying to find boogeyman terrorists that may or may not have existed in the US. If as you said they did their damn job, they wouldn't need to cast such a wide net like they did with their surveillance. And we would also have had more example of said surveillance actually saving lifes or leading to results.
What we do have instead is countless example of suspects being listed as at risk but nothing being done since the lists are so huge and impossible to act upon. it's not even a form of survivorship biais either; authorities are very very happy to announce that they thwarted some terrorist plot before it happened. Its just that it happens very rarely.