[Southack]

"Part of the reason this stuff is classified is that the source for the intel is extremely sensitive. We don't want the bad guys to know just how much of their electromagnetic signalling we detect and analyze. (The second part is the really classified part.)"

True, but remember that there is more to the world than just military intel. I come from the days when Van Eck units were routinely used to display targeted firms' computer screens remotely...quite useful for civilian corporate espionage and counter-intel operations.

Frankly, even the civilian corporate world is engaging in some pretty sophisticated EM sniffing these days. Greed is a powerful motivator for technological advances, and some of that civilian tech will be applicable to military Intel.

And the civilian tech is by definition not "classified."

[Poohbah]

True, but remember that there is more to the world than just military intel. I come from the days when Van Eck units were routinely used to display targeted firms' computer screens remotely...quite useful for civilian corporate espionage and counter-intel operations.

Collection isn't the sensitive part: detailing what we can and can't analyze is.