[nsp]

I'm pretty sure if you were involved with terrorist groups, you became aware of this sort of thing well before it made the front page of the New York Times. The idea that keeping it out of the press prevents the targets from knowing is naive.

[mpyne]

Just sayin', at the operational level it pretty much always has to be a secret, at least while the monitoring is going on.

[pyvpx]

bin laden & co. knew the NSA process took 72 hours and adjusted their communications accordingly. the operational aspects (read: deficiencies) of many "important" monitoring functions is widely known by those who "need" to know.