[txhurl]

What Shaffer was pointing out multipe times is that the data being mined was open-source, available NOW from pay-for databases and the internet. All he needs is the code,(or the permission to run the code) which technically belongs to the DOD, but which might be stored somewhere accidentally by his programming chick colleague and that consultant in California.

[Dat Mon]

The data may have been open source...but the mechanism to extract it from those sources may be quite unique and state of the art...way beyond Google. The collection mechanism and algorithm was IMHO part of the programs uniqueness.
Remember that this program, which ran on a secure computer system and a hackproof network, generated terabytes of background data.

However, if you have the background data generated by the program...and the program source code...you could in theory recompile the program and regenerate any and all reports from the archived data. The report process should also be part of the program.

To prove that this team fingered Atta in 2000, you would need to get the archived background data they had back in 2000, and regenerate the reports as they originally did in 2000.

Now it would be very interesting if both the program source code and the archived data from 2000 were BOTH erased, wouldnt it?