America is swamped with intelligence from the war on terrorism. It pours in each day from a multiplicity of sources, from the eavesdropping satellites of the vast National Security Agency and the CIA’s clandestine service, to the new generation of surveillance drones and the plethora of different agencies all trying to outdo each other in gathering snippets of information to ring alarm bells in the White House.

Since the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on 9/11, which was a classic case of intelligence failure on the part of the US authorities, the volume of information has proliferated to such an extent that it is impossible to find enough qualified specialists to analyse the material. Good intelligence is the key