When Al Qaeda struck a decade ago, among its incorporeal victims was Americans’ inbred wariness of the power of the government to snoop into their private lives. Shocked to watch nearly 3,000 die in a single, sprawling plot, many people were prepared to give up a little privacy and liberty so long as the counterterrorism bureaucracy promised them protection from a ruthless enemy.
Read more in The New York Times: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/assessing-the-trade-offs-between-security-and-civil-liberties/?hp