Earlier quoted context omitted.
You make it sound like all this stuff started with "war on terror". The US has been at war (and overthrowing governments) ever since WW2. And I'd be seriously surprised if the government did not have "total visibility" into non-cash financial transactions, phone calls, and internet traffic well before 2001.
Go re-read all the Snowden leaks. Many of those systems (or versions of them) were in operation for at least a decade before 2001.
I assumed as much. I think you're responding to the parent.