Could the Shadows goals reasonably fall under the category of "need"? Perhaps if a Darkfriend were facing a severe and certain penalty for failing in a particular task that might be an option (and that might be the case here) but in cases where someone nearly WANTS personal advancement I wouldn't think so, and if searching with need involves the Pattern I wouldn't expect the Pattern to aid its own destruction (which, at least according to Ishamael, has finally been established as the DOs goal. ) Though I personally think you're being deliberately silly here (if not, my apologies. )

They should, yes, but I've given up on that since it seems pretty common on the internet to omit abbreviations. Not just on the internet or recently either; when's the last time you saw someone write "C.I.A." or "I.R.S."? Conceding that point does not, however, mean I'm willing to surrender completely, and while people routinely omit articles and common prepositions in acronyms and abbreviations, IF we're going to use them we should use them correctly. Which incidentally means it should be "SCotUS" not "SCOTUS" but I don't expect to win that argument.

I disagree; the section where she takes the Wise Ones to see it makes clear that she intentionally provided a much more obvious decoy. It's not like everything of value was in that one non-descript box: The adam and the Choedan Kal access key, nothing else. Also, when Rand confronts her with the box later there's nothing else present: It wasn't that someone tore her room apart until they found the adam, they knew exactly where to go to get exactly what they wanted, and did. That means they knew where it was already, and that was hardly common knowledge.