Want to know why no one trusts anything NSA officials and their defenders have to say any more? When the bulk metadata collection was first revealed, those defenders went on and on about how the program „saved countless lives“ and was instrumental in stopping terrorist attacks. Some skeptics then asked what terrorist attacks, and we were told „around 50“ though details weren‘t forthcoming. Eventually, we were told that the real number was „54 terrorist events“ (note: not attacks) and a review of them later revealed that basically none of them were legitimate. There was one „event“ prevented via the program on US soil, and it was a taxi driver in San Diego sending some money to a terrorist group in Somalia, rather than an actual terrorist attack.