Can we know how many American lives are saved each year by spying?

And by spying, I mean any kind of intelligence operation, either at home or abroad, on citizens and foreigners, including surveillance and undercover operations, wire tapping, bugging people’s phones, etc. Is there some way to measure the cost of the ventures vs. the number of lives or capital saved?

No, it’s impossible. There are too many variables.

Even if one could come up with a formula, I can’t see any of the intelligence agencies revealing that much specific info. Had 9-11 been thwarted before it happened, I seriously doubt that much would have been said about it, if anything. That’s kinda what classified info is all about.

Then again, if 9-11 hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t necessarily be in such a terror tizzy these days.

This, in brief. The long form is: no. You can kind of look at, oh, speed limits for instance, and compare accident data and draw some conclusions, but it’s more difficult to place a value on espionage because not all intel is acted upon. “Pretending not to know” is a strategic use of intel that protects sources as well as develops a larger picture of what your target’s intents are. FWIW, 9/11 was almost certainly not a government plot, but it could easily have been a case of a few people saying, “That’s an interesting increase in communications activity, let’s see where this is headed…Uh-oh!” Or 9/11 could have just been the 4 teams that scored while the 20 other teams were quietly busted. Also, if you act on too much intel, your targets realize they always get busted when they communicate in a certain way, so they change the way they communicate their REAL info, and throw decoys out through the channels they know are being watched. If you announce the plots you thwart, you’ve told your enemy that it was YOU that did the thwarting, and that their plan was otherwise viable. So they work out how you found out, tie up some loose ends, make adjustments and try again as opposed to thinking, “Aw dang, bad luck that one didn’t go off!”

Having gone through other people’s personal information (in an official capacity) I can tell you it’s tedious and even the juiciest gossipy stuff becomes mundane and annoying–it’s distracting noise that can make you miss the important things. Whether or not They have the right to eavesdrop on your call, nobody really wants to unless they think you’re going to be passing some useful information. I think The Patriot Act says a lot about what sort of information could have clarified and prevented the 9/11 situation than it does about a more nefarious and intentional plot to undermine our rights and enslave the citizenry of the US.

Sorry…got a little preachy there. Short answer to the OP: No.