Army project illustrates promise, shortcomings of data mining

Nice long and detailed article on data mining and looking for signals in the noise: Army project illustrates promise, shortcomings of data mining.

"In the spring of 2000, a year and a half before the 9/11 attacks, Erik Kleinsmith made a decision that history may judge as a colossal mistake.

 

Then a 35-year-old Army major assigned to a little-known intelligence organization at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, Kleinsmith had compiled an enormous cache of information -- most of it electronically stored -- about the Al Qaeda terrorist network. It described the group's presence in countries around the world, including the United States...."