Yes, more data will make the problem worse if they don't know how to distill it. If you believe the reports, they only actually query the metadata a few hundred/few thousand times a year. They should be able to connect dots in that case.

They presented a memo to Bush warning of the plans to attack. It was ignored among the avalanche of other warnings.

Apparently the infamous Presidential Daily Briefing paper - "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" - was declassified and released in 2004. It's here - http://www2.gwu.edu/..._laden_file02.pdf (2 page .pdf). There isn't a lot of meat there. Richard Clarke's hair may have been on fire about it, but it doesn't come across in the memo. Even if he had taken it seriously, what were they wanting Bush to do?

Yes, Bush was incompetent, but the people working on the problem weren't able to connect the dots and get the appropriate information up the chain to whoever prepared the memo.

FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.