Sebastian Rotella writes in Defenders of NSA Surveillance Omit Most of Mumbai Plotter’s Story:
James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said a data collection program by the National Security Agency helped stop an attack on a Danish newspaper for which Headley did surveillance. And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Senate intelligence chairwoman, also called Headley's capture a success.
But a closer examination of the case, drawn from extensive reporting by ProPublica, shows that the government surveillance only caught up with Headley after the U.S. had been tipped by British intelligence. And even that victory came after seven years in which U.S. intelligence failed to stop Headley as he roamed the globe on missions for Islamic terror networks and Pakistan's spy agency.
Supporters of the sweeping U.S. surveillance effort say it's needed to build a haystack of information in which to find a needle that will stop a terrorist. In Headley's case, however, it appears the U.S. was handed the needle first — and then deployed surveillance that led to the arrest and prosecution of Headley and other plotters.
As ProPublica has previously documented, Headley's case shows an alarming litany of breakdowns in the U.S. counterterror system that allowed him to play a central role in the massacre of 166 people in Mumbai, among them six Americans.
(emphasis added)
Quoting the lawyer for a co-defendant of Headley, Sebastian writes:
Swift called the case a dramatic example of the limits of the U.S. counterterror system because both high-tech and human resources failed to prevent the Mumbai attacks.
“You have to know what you are looking for and what you are looking at,” Swift said. “Headley’s the classic example. They missed Mumbai completely.”
I would say having to know:
- What you are looking for, and
- What you are looking at.
are fairly severe limitations on a heterogeneous data system.
It’s the only way such a system can work but then I’m not an advocate for it.
On the other hand, starting from terrorists who are pointed out or captured, will help illustrate how little different such a system makes.
Not to mention showing all the cases where agencies failed to share information or use information they already had.
So maybe there is an upside to the NSA data project after all.
It can used to hold the NSA, CIA, etc. responsible for their many failures.
Perhaps the NSA is documenting a path to its own demise.
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