&quot;One key premise here seems to be that prior to the Snowden reporting, The Terrorists helpfully and stupidly used telephones and unencrypted emails to plot, so Western governments were able to track their plotting and disrupt at least large-scale attacks. That would come as a massive surprise to the victims of the attacks of 2002 in Bali, 2004 in Madrid, 2005 in London, 2008 in Mumbai, and April 2013 at the Boston Marathon.&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theintercept.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;15&#x2F;exploiting-emotions-about-paris-to-blame-snowden-distract-from-actual-culprits-who-empowered-isis&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theintercept.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;15&#x2F;exploiting-emotions-abou...</a>