How the NSA’s high-tech surveillance helped Europeans catch terrorists
Sucheta Dalal 20 Jun 2013
The debate about National Security Agency eavesdropping has left European investigators bemused. US technology collects mountains of data that often aids their cases, they say. But there's no substitute for real human spying

Sebastian Rotella (ProPublica)

PARIS — In 2007, Belgian police were keeping close watch on Malika el-Aroud, a fierce al-Qaida ideologue whose dark eyes smoldered above her veil.

The Moroccan-born Aroud had met Osama bin Laden while living in al-Qaida’s stronghold in Afghanistan. She gained exalted status when her husband posed as a journalist to blow up the renowned Ahmed Shah Massoud, the chief of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, just two days before the Sept. 11 attacks.

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