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Top Secret America

This is more of a PSA than an actual post, because I'm doing approximately none of the legwork for this, but it's too important to let pass by. I suspect many of you will already have heard of, if not read, this piece. Dana Priest (and others) at the Washington Post have finally gone live with the results of a two-year investigation into the covert, counterterrorism, and national security state of America after 9/11. What they found is now online (the first part of it) at Top Secret America on the Washington Post.

I’m curious to hear what people think, and I'll start the ball rolling: one of the figures presented very early is the startling (to me, anyway) one that 854,000 people - approximately - have "Top Secret" security clearance. Our population is around 320,000,000. That means somewhere around one in every 4 people has such a clearance. With that kind of ubiquity, wouldn't it stand to reason that the probability of someone with ill intentions towards the United States getting through the screening process has approached - if not already hit - one?

Tags: NSA, national_security, politics, terrorism, wiretapping

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Comment by Mamawho on July 19, 2010 at 9:31am: Your math is off a bit. 1 in 4 would be just over 80 million, not 800, ooo.

Comment by The Diaper Pail on July 19, 2010 at 12:36pm: Oof. You're right. What I meant was one quarter of one percent, not one quarter of the population. Shows what I get for hurrying [blush].

Comment by Mamawho on July 19, 2010 at 12:44pm: That's what I figured happened. :)

My husband works in the clearanced, controlled-access DOD world, and it is something of a clusterfuck. I imagine the number for folks with Secret clearances is even higher. You need that clearance for more jobs.

Comment by MamatothaMax on July 19, 2010 at 3:20pm: Secret clearance guys get the members only jacket. Top Secret get the shoe phone. Sailor's jacket is blue.

Comment by mcglory13 on July 19, 2010 at 3:42pm: Spouse had secret security clearance for awhile. He was called in to explain my "foreign entanglements." It's how I learned I have an FBI or CIA file or something. The government is keeping tabs on me, at any rate. He was working on military contracts and defense stuff as well. Basically anybody who works for a company that manufactures a product used by the military has to have secret clearance. They want to make sure you cannot be blackmailed to give the info to someone else.

Comment by Marissa's Dad on July 19, 2010 at 4:40pm: MamatothaMax- mine was blue too. I didn't have a whammerdyne clearance, but I did have one. My member's only jacket was too restraining...

Mamawho, yeah, clusterfuck. Good word for it.

Comment by MamatothaMax on July 20, 2010 at 3:51pm: I've had a file since the age of three. My uncle had the uberclearance. We'd get a visit or phone call from the men in black once a year because of my mom's resident alien status. Apparently a tiny brit makes them nervous.

Top Secret America

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