"Homeland" gets into Natural Language Processing

The Department of Homeland Security is funding machine-learning research to help separate opinion from fact. Apparently they think they need to be able to find out what Americans think from analyzing the e-mails they have collected from their surveillance program. The domestic spy agencies of East Germany and other soviet bloc states never had it this good.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/cuns-sfa092206.php
http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=364