"The volume of data they collect has reached the point where good analysis is no longer tractable in a theoretical algorithmic sense with

the best tools they currently have at their disposal, particularly when

you have a data space as broad and diffuse as "terrorism" to sift. "

This is a sham. Their traffic analysis tools are very competent. And pervasive. They are perhaps jockeying for money for translators, since that may be the limiting resources. That may be what keeps the signal to noise down so that further resources can be applied. Tracking and correlating are not the bottlenecks.