Search for Flight 370 Enters Daunting New Phase
online.wsj.com
online.wsj.com
I have wondered what the NSA etc. can say about chatter in recent weeks. What the NSA might know.
And if the NSA doesn't know, what that says about NSA efficacy.
Why?
Bureaucracies are not agile enough to effect real-time and reactive signals intelligence gathering. They breed internal cultures and petty fiefdoms which by their very nature are loath to cooperate. For the relative cost of intelligence agencies, their victories are few and far between and often only accomplished in tandem with established means of spy craft. Advocates will of course claim this is due to the secretive nature of the work, however declassified documents of times gone by rarely prove that the case.
Any villain that hasn't been living under a rock is aware of the technological capabilities of these agencies, rendering them virtually ineffective. The NSA didn't catch Osama, old fashioned spy craft, detective work and torture did (2).
[1] http://consortiumnews.com/2014/01/07/nsa-insiders-reveal-wha...
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bin-ladens-death-and-...
But I suspect what __Pthrow was suggesting was that the agencies could look back at the chatter they gathered, and put the pieces together from what they heard. Though, in order to do this, they'd still need to have some idea of what they are looking for.