The Washington Post has completed a two year survey and review of America’s intelligence gathering since 9/11, mostly, they claim, by simply examining public records, and aggregating the data. Or, as we simpler folk would say, connecting the dots. But all intelligence is connecting the dots, whether Military Intelligence or plain old human intelligence. But once you’ve got the dots connected, how do you keep them connected, how do you keep them from coming apart again? Enter the orb spider.

 

 

The sheer tensile strength of the orb spider’s web

Is many times greater than steel

She sits and she waits for her dinner to come

Stirring thrums in the web she will feel

Then she pounces at once with a motion so quick

That the eye cannot follow the leap

And the dot is enclosed in the orb spider’s silk

That she’ll toss on the top of the heap

Connecting the dot to the others she’s stored
All tied with her strong silken knots

She never does sleep and she never does rest

She’s kept busy connecting the dots