> It more or less proves (to me at least) that the government(s) and the various secret services have absolutely no idea who to monitor specifically. So instead of targeting their operations they want to monitor all of us, just in case something of interest pops out that then allows them to focus their attention.

Except that most of the recent terror attacks have involved at least one person known to the authorities. One of the Paris attackers even had an international arrest warrant out for him.