elka-sulzer
27.08.10, 09:46
The top-secret world the government created in response to the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so
unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs,
how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or
exactly how many agencies do the same work.
These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The
Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative
geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from
public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of
unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put
in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its
effectiveness is impossible to determine.
The investigation's other findings include:
* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies
work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and
intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as
live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.
* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for
top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been
built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of
almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17
million square feet of space.
projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
