Back when I was in 8th grade, there was a guy who claimed he had a girlfriend. She lived in [two towns over]. But no one believed him because they never saw her. Never got her last name. There were just claims that "she's from [town], and she's awesome".

I have the same reaction to the national security theatre that we're always presented with from classified space. "Trust us there's a real threat, but you don't know about it because it's classified". They can't tell us anything about their 'constant' and 'heroic' efforts to save us from the evil monster redacted. There's no evidence presented to me.

On the other hand, the real bad guys are constantly doing stuff to get in the news. So the only conclusion I have is 'national security' is the bureaucratic way of saying "my girlfriend lives two towns over".