Recent report uncovers alternative, top-secret America
19th July, 2010
The US government's intelligence gathering activities have grown at a staggering rate since 9/11 and now represent a top-secret world that is out of control, according to two years of investigation by the Washington Post.
The United States markets itself as the greatest democracy in the world, but a recent investigation has found that ‘the land of the free’ has surrendered a lot in the name of fighting terrorism, much like every other advanced democracy in the world.
The investigation, carried out over the last 48 months by the Washington Post, uncovered a world that they describe as “an alternative geography of the United States” a secretive, restrictive America that has more in common with a mystery blockbuster, or a Naomi Klein novel, than the nation envisioned by the founding fathers.
The report refers to a top-secret world created by the US government to protect the country after the 9/11 attacks changed the face of history at the beginning of the 21st century. This world is so secretive and hidden that two years of investigative journalism has been able to uncover little about it.
The Washington Post found that some 850,000 people have top-secret clearance to the various programs enacted after the attacks on the World Trade Center.
The exact number of programs is unknown and cannot be found out through Freedom of Information laws, but 1,931 private companies and 1,271 government departments contribute to them and 33 vast building complexes have been built in Washington, DC since September 11th, 2001. All of them house departments engaged in classified intelligence gathering anti-terror efforts.
When these complexes are combined, they occupy a land area three times larger than that of the Pentagon, around 17 million square feet, which is about the same land area as the Principality of Monaco.
In fact, the whole operation has grown so large that it is, effectively, out of control. It has become a bureaucracy so vast that it no longer properly carries out the protective function for which it was created.
“The complexity of this system defies description,” Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, retired, told the Washington Post. He was brought in by the Defense Department last year to review their methods for monitoring their most classified and sensitive programs.
He has commanded troops in Iraq that numbered over 140,000, but was stunned by what he found in the Defense Department.
The size of the entire system is larger than any other intelligence gathering operation in history and represents a level of restriction as great as that found in the USSR, Apartheid South Africa and China under Mao Zedong.
It is unknown who all the departments are watching or why and represents an alarming situation whereby the systems activities cannot be revealed for security reasons, thereby providing carte blanche freedom to operate outside the laws of the land.
It is unknown whether there is any oversight to any of the activities of any of the over 3,000 private companies and government departments engaged in the system.
Robert Gates, the US Defense Secretary, was interviewed by the Washington Post and denied the system was growing out of control, but conceded that redundancy and over-expenditure were issues that had to be looked into.
With the US deficit spiraling out of control, he was unable to say how much the US was spending on anti-terror programs because that information is classified.
Source
Recent report uncovers alternative, top-secret America
Moderators: Balou, Twichaldinho
MSNBC did a story on this very topic yesterday. Richard Clark was the guest commentator and he suggests that an independent body similar to the DOD's BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) be appointed to consolidate and reduce this "secretive world."
Makes sense to me, won't happen though, and it should come as no surprise. There is way too much money, not to mention political capital, to be made. The (US) military industrial complex shall never die.
Maybe now is the time for a (near) extinction-level-event to occur? Nah, too many would see this as a sign of the second coming. Anyone in need of a carpenter? A fisherman? A philosopher perhaps?
What's next? Any guesses?
Makes sense to me, won't happen though, and it should come as no surprise. There is way too much money, not to mention political capital, to be made. The (US) military industrial complex shall never die.
Maybe now is the time for a (near) extinction-level-event to occur? Nah, too many would see this as a sign of the second coming. Anyone in need of a carpenter? A fisherman? A philosopher perhaps?
What's next? Any guesses?
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evergrey1968
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All this info is coming from a series of articles written by the Washington Post, worth a read
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top- ... next-door/
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top- ... next-door/
The joke I heard was about military intelligence, which was described as an oxymoron. The Mariam-Webster dictionary defines oxymoron as a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as cruel kindness).colinzeal wrote:850,000 people with top-secret clearance! sounds like an intelligence disaster to me.
Whats that old joke about american intelligence? with the what now?
