The FAA is worried about getting data on the owners of planes due to what terrorists might potentially plan with these planes. The TSA is spending 2.4 billion dollars to see people naked or grope those who opt out in the name of stopping terrorists.
This is all ridiculous, of course. If there were a significant amount of dedicated terrorists in this country, we would know. Just ask Israel. Think about what 10 or 20 coordinated people can do. They don't have to hit the targets they hit before. Two people with a gun and modified car shut down an entire metropolitan area. Multiple this by 5 or 10 and you have a very large population living in even more of a police state. The lives lost will be nothing in comparison to the damage done to society during the response to the crisis. The airport security isn't making anyone safer either, and if there were suicide bombers in the US then they could buy a ticket (or print out a fake ticket) and walk into any packed airline security line and be sure that they are in a crown of people when they go off. Thankfully, none of these or any other number of simple ideas for terrorists to implement has occurred. When something did happen outside the US in Sweden, the terrorist was apparently so incompetent that they barely manage to kill more than a few people other than themselves in a completely unsuspecting population.
The lack of US terrorist events means that the dedicated terrorists in the US are either planning something really big, have been effectively shutdown by intelligence agents more times than we know or they are in no way organized or motivated enough to give their lives. Sadly, terrorists don't even have to be organized or even successful to make an impact. As we've seen, even one or two failed attacks causes billions of dollars of damages by causing money to be sunk into security theater spending that wastes people's time and offends their dignity.
When we hear that something is being done mainly for our safety, we need to keep Benjamin Franklin's words in mind.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
I would extend this thought to specifically cover those people trying to take away essential liberties. That is the bright side of wikileaks. It may have hurt the US by revealing key people who were helping them, but reminding government workers that their reasons behind their actions might see the light of day sooner than they think will hopefully remove a safety blanket and make them think twice about what they are doing.