The ‘Super User’ Problem and Other Top Secret America Enigmas
During the third week in July the news in this country seemed preoccupied with the Shirley Sherrod story. Meanwhile, another very important story was largely overlooked — one about your safety, security, and wallet.
In “Top Secret America,” the Washington Post unveiled an impressive, two-year investigation by reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin. In it, they depict a giant intelligence bureaucracy unprecedented in scope and size. If the whole purpose of the post-9/11 federal intelligence system was to tear down the walls of bureaucracy, the report shows in no uncertain terms that just the opposite has happened. America now has a labyrinthine intelligence bureaucracy made of tall, impenetrable walls.
Today’s behemoth is made up of an astonishing 1,271 government bureaucracies and 1,931 private companies employing at least 854,000 top secret cleared individuals. To visualize that kind of workforce, consider the office space they require: 17 million square feet worth, which is roughly three times the size of the Pentagon. The growth is not slowing down anytime soon. In the Washington, D.C., area alone, 33 intelligence agency building complexes have been built since 9/11, or are currently under construction, in order to accommodate this new, top secret workforce.
The problem is not just the sheer volume, it’s the massive amount of waste involved. One example the Post uses involves the analysts who track terror-financing schemes. They belong to 51 separate federal organizations and publish 50,000 intelligence reports a year. That kind of reportage is impossibly unwieldy, leaving much of the data in the reports ignored. “Lack of focus, not lack of resources, was at the heart of the Fort Hood shooting that left 13 dead, as well as the Christmas Day bomb attempt thwarted,” write Priest and Arkin.
Excellent article, well researched, thoughtful and timely. Of course it will be overlooked because it lays out the truth.
The real problem is government agencies do not reduce in size or diminish their scope of authority. They grow and expands its power, eventually becoming something never intended.
What will happen when this intelligence agency begins to utilize its powers and reach for domestic uses on regular american citizens..There is no control or check and balance with this entity…it serves a purpose defined and executed on its own terms.
This vividly reminds me of the “Ministry of Love” in the book, “1984″ by George Orwell (written in 1948, but it has never gotten out of date). When I saw that a place of employment for 850,000 and counting has been created in the US, all I could think of was JOB CREATION! Unfortunately, the only Americans who could hold a “Top Secret” clearance in such a blatantly undemocratic, anti-American bureaucracy without developing stomach ulcers and every sort of disorder, are those who are already pathological (like the “1984″ cadre). The rest of us college-educated Americans, those with scruples, will have to content ourselves with perhaps jobs filling grocery bags at supermarkets.
Rome eventually fell, not because the barbarians who overthrew it were militarily superior, but because the Romans could no longer fleece the poor for any more money to feed their bloated bureaucracy.
Excellent job on this article. It was highly enjoyable and I’m certainly going to be sharing this will my followers and friends.
Government bureaucracy may soon become the boa constrictor that will slowly squeeze the life out of this country if nothing is done about it.
These are the stories that people need to see, but they are too interested in whatever weekly pop culture craze is happening at the moment.
9/11 was one of the, if not the, biggest intelligence failure in the history of the U.S. The main problem was a bloated, ineffective, inefficient, compartmentalized intelligence apparatus. So, what did we do? We added another layer of bloated bureaucracy – the Homeland Security Department. And now we have a bigger mess than we started with. By the way, Republicans were in control when this mess was increased. While I want major Democrat losses this November, we need to get the big government Republicans out of our government as well.
Gates told angry staffers on Capital Hill last week that a review of the intelligence organizations under his purview was forthcoming. “In a memo, Gates ordered a review to be completed by Nov. 1 of all Defense Department intelligence missions, organizations, relationships and contracts to eliminate needless duplication,” writes the AP. Problem solve: another review, more paper — more of Leone’s boa constrictor squeeze — but in reality, since one org doesn’t have a need-to-know about what the org over the wall is doing in secret, the “needless duplication” is never known. Its just a nice-sounding slogan.
Gates also said he’s immediately cutting 10% of private contractor funding but that can’t possibly account for the budgets which are classified, as so many are.
Any researchers interested in learning more, look closely at the contractors (available as links through the Post’s Top Secret website) who they are and what they do.
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=37&sid=2025146
The last time I checked, those budgets belong to military agencies, those agencies belong to the Department of Defense and Gates is the head of the entire department which makes his orders binding on the entire bureaucracy.
Hello Annie, sounds like a recap of terror in the skies. There was a question at that time who was benefiting from classified information. I have a hard time accepting that it is all that effective in keeping the adversary in the dark. With Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf running around loose in the Mid East on the State Department’s dime just how effective can our intelligence be? Where are the investigative reporters that should be digging into this and keeping us informed? The system will work just fine keeping the government informed on us peons while we are kept completely in the dark about our government. Yes, we need intelligence but I have thought for years that our government has used classification to keep us in the dark and not to keep intelligence out of enemy hands. Keep up the good work and maybe we can find our way out of this dark maze.
I’d hold off making any quick and rushed judgments on our large security bureaucracy based upon any “investigation” by the likes of the Washington Post…let’s ignore for the time being, if we can, the eagerly sought after Pulitzer-in-waiting here.
Doubtless, these agencies themselves are well aware of their payroll length and the amounts entailed, and the volumes of stuff to be digested, or not.
Those who don’t have these appalling Intelligence responsibilities on a daily basis aren’t really too qualified to say,”look here!…and here!”.
Lastly, these Intel agencies aren’t about to release any really useful information on hand which may, or may not, explain, confirm, or deny any news-media charges.
Everybody take a deep breath.
Why call the Washington Post’s credibility into question? They are presenting facts that are quite alarming. Do you think they are making these up? Do you dispute them? Do you think there is any chance that these bureaucracies are right sized or effective?
While we “take a deep breath” and look the other way, the government just grows and grows. This type of bloat, waste, incompetence and (likely) fraud is a far more serious problem then anything they are investigating.
1. Why not?
2. Are they?
3. No.
4. No.
5. I have no way of knowing. I’m an outsider….”out of the loop”.
6. Your last sentence is just plain silly.
7. It’s OK to exhale now.
Government is at 45% of GNP and increasing. Most of this activity enriches the insiders but contributes very little to our standard of living – in fact interferes with it in so many ways.
Collective productivity is essential for a healthy society. Those who destroy this from within are more dangerous than any foreign enemy. If this trend continues we will see how silly #6 is.