The NSA is a bit crippled. They are so intensely afraid of someone (anyone) figuring out what they do or how they do it that they can not act on any information they gather. The 9/11 Commission report showed that the NSA had full access to all of Mohammed Attas communications, knew exactly where he was, had translated his messages, etc, yet they did nothing about it. When the CIA requested access to the information they had, the NSA refused. When the FBI requested access to the information, the NSA refused. The degree to which they are obsessively paranoid can not be overstated. It's quite possible that they are very well aware of these weaknesses along with multitudes of others, but they will never say a word about it for fear that someone might figure out what they do.