A hidden world, growing beyond control
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.
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