February 25, 2006

Dan Barry About New York column recalls anthrax scare of 2001 when mail was source of terror; says recollections came about because of recent case of Vado Diomande, who fell sick after inhaling anthrax spores from imported hides; notes government preparedness has improved and that 2001 anthrax attacks remain under investigation (M)

New Jersey Nets defeat New York Knicks, 94-90; photos (M)

Bush administration is looking at ways to mine databases in its anti-terrorist eavesdropping program: computerized systems that reveal connections between seemingly innocuous and unrelated pieces of information; tools government officials are looking for are new, but their application would fall under well-established practice of data mining: using mathematical and statistical techniques to scan for hidden relationships in streams of digital data or large databases; intelligence agencies, hardly newcomers to data mining, are using new technologies to take practice to another level; but by fundamentally changing nature of surveillance, high-tech data mining raises privacy concerns that are only beginning to be widely debated; to find illicit activities it is necessary to turn loose software sentinels to examine all digital behavior whether it is innocent or not; technology industry executives and government officials say that intelligence agency systems take techniques used by Internet-era software snoops step further, applying software analysis tools now routinely used by law enforcement agencies to identify criminal activities and political terrorist organizations that would otherwise be missed by human eavesdroppers; one such tool is Analyst's Notebook, crime investigation 'spreadsheet' and visualization tool developed by i2Inc, diagram (L)

Securities and Exchange Commission issued subpoena to Carol S Remond and Herb Greenberg, journalists at two Dow Jones publications, when it ordered them to provide information about conversations they had with stock traders and analysts; SEC decided not to enforce subpoena after it received questions from other reporters; subpoena sought information from Greenberg, columnist for MarketWatch.com, and Remond, columnist for Dow Jones Newswires, about articles that have contributed to stock declines at several companies; SEC is examining accusations that research firm, Gradient Analytics, and its predecessor company, Camelback Research Alliance, have worked with short sellers and hedge funds to manipulate share prices of several companies; Greenberg's columns have moved share prices of some of companies at issue, particularly Overstock.com; photo (M)

Judge James R Spencer rules that he will not immediately stop BlackBerry wireless e-mail service at heart of long-running patent dispute; says he is surprised and disappointed that Research in Motion and NTP have not been able to reach settlement; judge gives no timetable as to when he will issue injunction; United States Patent and Trademark Office has found all three of NTP patents related to case invalid; NTP says it will appeal; photo (M)