"Mere Possibility"

At the Washington Post (among other places) is an AP article on the "President's Surveillance Program" . Since it's AP, I won't quote much, but it says the report said that most leads didn't have "any connection to terrorism". It also quotes FBI agents as claiming that the "mere possibility of the leads producing useful information made investigating the leads worthwhile."

No.

The "mere possibility" is not enough. That's not how this country's legal system works. (What we've had for the better part of a decade, if not longer, wasn't working.) The mere possibility that someone might commit a crime isn't enough to arrest them; the mere possibility that someone might be dangerous isn't enough to lock them up; the mere possibility that someone might do something isn't enough to take action against them... And the mere possibility that illegal surveillance might produce actionable intelligence isn't enough to justify it.

Even less is the mere possibility that someone, somewhere, might do something an excuse for mass surveillance.

There has to be cause for belief, not a mere possibility.

This program has been shut down. Others almost as egregious are still running. They, too, should be ended.

We need more than mere possibilities. Or at the very least, we should.