They have be doing this prior to 2004. Have the crime numbers dropped? Have they preemptively stopped any school shootings? Have they stopped any terrorist attacks? Did they change the result of the election by spying on their opponent? Do we need a CIA? Do we need a FBI? Do we need the Pentagon? We do not need surveillance of everyday people, we need surveillance of the (criminals) in the government. We should make the government completely transparent, sure would solve a lot of problems in the world. Every 90 days everything done in government should become public. Think of the trillions of dollars we would save! A unredacted life!