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Panning for gold
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| 29 November 2001 |
By Mark Hewish
The world's intelligence agencies are turning to advanced technologies to help them sift nuggets of information from torrents of data. The challenge is to refine the results further, leading to knowledge and - eventually - understanding.
The failure of the US intelligence community to predict the terrorist attacks of 11 September has focused attention on shortfalls in this area. These include an unwillingness to accept that the Cold War is over; a continuing turf battle among different agencies for responsibilities, funding and the attention of senior leaders; and a slowness to embrace what is already available in the commercial marketplace.
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