Why the Boston Marathon Bombings are not a failure of intelligence.

1. Remember the Patriot Act? Remember how much of an uproar was caused by the simple suggestion that the government can monitor your emails, tap your phones, sequester your phone records, and record your banking information?
2. Remember how we balked at the idea that the CIA, NSA, DHS, FBI, ICE, ATF and other government agencies were keeping records about each of us?
3. The 19 year old was an American citizen.
4. Those who travel overseas do not wear ankle bracelets. We don’t always know where they go, who they talk to.
5. Russia is not exactly our BFF.
6. Do you want the FBI monitoring your YouTube channel for signs that you *may* be an insurgent?
7. What if you are a grad student studying terrorism? At what point after numerous searches on bioterrorism, CBRNE, extremist groups, threats against America, ect should the FBI be able to haul you in for questioning.
8. The FBI is a law enforcement agency and must abide by the American Code of Justice, meaning they cannot follow you around like the paparazzi.
9. Would you really want them to do number 8?
10. Lone wolf terrorists act alone. They are by definition secret, discrete and nearly impossible to trace.
11. Intelligence agencies like the CIA are prohibited, via the National Security Act of 1947 from operating on US soil. That means “intelligence agencies” in their truest form could not investigate American citizens.
12. The FBI has an intelligence division which must abide by the same laws as other law enforcement agencies, including getting a search warrant to search your home, records, and computer.
13. Not everyone who buys a pressure cooker has to submit to a background check first. I’d go as far as to say that no one who buys a pressure cooker gets a background check first.
14. Even now with one dead and the other talking, intelligence officials are still struggling to discover why. How could we have had those answers before we even knew who they were?
15. There were approximately 500,000 spectators. Just take a minute for that to sink in.
16. After the bombings, every person with a backpack was a social media suspect.
17. This is AMERICA. We are FREE people. As long as we wish to remain FREE, 100% protection against terrorism is impossible. DEAL WITH IT FOLKS!