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As many of you are aware, in the past few weeks, there has been a  
controversy in the USA about our government potentially spying on our  
own citizens, all in regards to the war against Al Qaida.  Once of  
the reasons given for the monitoring of calls/emails to/from USA is  
the following by an Assistant US Attorney General...

"As described by the President, the NSA intercepts certain
international communications into and out of the United States of people
linked to al Qaeda or an affiliated terrorist organization. The  
purpose of these
intercepts is to establish an early warning system to detect and prevent
another catastrophic terrorist attack on the IJnited States."

http://www.nationalreview.com/pdf/12%2022%2005%20NSA%20letter.pdf

"linked to" and "affiliated"... hmm... sounds reasonable... but, as  
all of us who have done SNA in real live environments know, how we  
define these relationships affects the rest of the project.... and if  
we do it wrong it is GIGO -- garbage in, garbage out.  Seems like SNA  
and "what is a tie" may soon be debated on the front pages, the  
blogosphere, and inquired about in congressional hearings.  Any must- 
read papers on the subject?

Happy New Year to all!   2006 may be a big year for SNA... well, at  
least an interesting year.

Valdis

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