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Ear to the Ground

Washington Post Delves Into ‘Top Secret America’

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Posted on Jul 19, 2010
intelligence agents
cia.gov

It’s no secret that the intelligence community in the United States has undergone significant changes since Sept. 11, 2001, but the extent to which the spying business has expanded in nine years is nearly impossible to gauge, according to an in-depth investigation by The Washington Post.

The Washington Post:

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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By T. A. Madison, July 19, 2010 at 8:09 pm Link to this comment

Bears repeating:  “But don’t forget that the Neocon rats were very adept leaving the sinking SS Cheney and now infest the Prez’s entire administration.”

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By samosamo, July 19, 2010 at 7:58 pm Link to this comment

****************


With all that ‘intelligence’ around it would seem that there is
nothing left to be intelligent about except I guess everyone
reporting in on everyone he or she sees. But wait, doesn’t that
eerily sound like what we thought the communist countries were
like?

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By Aarky, July 19, 2010 at 7:05 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Bureaucrats and all apparatchiki will produce blizzards of paperwork and reports to justify their existence and promotions. Luckily, most of these will be filed away and ignored. When Uncle Sam started the data mining of phone calls and e-mails, that added huge amounts of information into the system of trying to sort out meaningful stuff. If they were seriously trying to find the terrorists, or that “needle in the haystack”, it will be very difficult or almost impossible because they have added so much useless hay and chaff (information)to the stack.

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Peter Knopfler's avatar

By Peter Knopfler, July 19, 2010 at 4:57 pm Link to this comment

The Era for Whistle Blowers The Washington Post remember “All the presidents Men!
http://WWW.DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG WENT THROUGTH THE STORY IN GREAT DETAIL SUGGESTED TO CHECK OUT http://WWW.TIMSHORROCK.COM for more info.
Homeland security is just the veil to distract the public. I am Over sixty, reminds me of what we learned about the S.S gestapo process.
This is happening NOW in The USA!
Wait until they create a youth movement, which was Adolfs next,
move, was to create a civilian army.
Google the Obama deception.. maybe its still on, google works for the Gestapo may they took it off. Freedom of speech also goes next, to criticize Obama, your beggin for a drone visit, silent and deadly.
Economic military Draft, only job in town, wow!
just like Germany 1933, history repeats only on a grander scale.
access google spies on users, watch what else you get.
Seems cartoonish, YET IT IS NOT FUNNY! AT ALL! Corporate dictatorship, privitize prisons, civilian security army, cameras in peoples homes like the UK, protecting the gap between the haves and have nots. Expected civil disobedience a NATION SCARED OF ITSELF! Nazi Germany

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By wildflower, July 19, 2010 at 3:25 pm Link to this comment

Re Washington Post: “Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering . . . has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no one really knows what it cost and how many people are involved . . there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on
counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in some 10,000 locations.” 

Good grief! Unbelieveable! Dare we ask how many private consultants it takes to help a secret service agent screw in a light bulb?

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By berniem, July 19, 2010 at 2:55 pm Link to this comment

So we’re becoming Socialist by outsourcing, privatizing, and sub-contracting virtually every facet of governmental responsibility to privately owned entities who also write their own performance standards and evaluation procedures while ensuring that only persons meeting with their approval have the slightest chance of being elected to office as “representatives of the people”.And yet the reactionary party whines incessantly about the ever increasing intrusion of government(?) into our lives! I think we’ve lost a substantial part of that “government of, by, and for…” thing and allowed it to become the vehicle whereby the The Market no longer needs worry about being “free” as it now has license to run amok!

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By T. A. Madison, July 19, 2010 at 12:53 pm Link to this comment

**Whatever**.  We are many and they are few.  It is the influence of the people insisting on democratic rule of law that stands in opposition to corrupting power absolutely corrupting those who use it.  Prior to the US invasion of Iraq 37 million people demonstrated to prevent the war.  That number most certainly has grown ever since.  It is not too much at all to realize that the vast majority have more shared interests and common ground that not.  It is necessary to affirm this to each other and not be bated into factionalism.  The rudimentary issues play out this way: authoritarianism v. democracy aka holding authority accountable and the emphasis of inexorable power of Peace within ourselves as the primary cue its to wear down fractious war.

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By purplewolf, July 19, 2010 at 12:05 pm Link to this comment

Yet we still hear the mantra: “America land of the free,” yeah, right. And forget about all of our military fighting for “OUR FREEDOM”. We know it is for big oil, mega corps and not our safety and freedoms,since they took them almost all away. Especially during Bush II.

You are only as free as your government lets you think you are. One of my college professors said that in the 80’s.

It is also known that many of those monitoring our communication are from other countries and that they do not understand what is read or listened to and misinterpret the actual messages over 90% of the time, so basically the information is totally useless and false. Also our government has hired our enemies to screen to our so called private messages and what incentive would those that hate American have to be truthful in what they claim we are saying to those who are so paranoid that they feel they have to keep tract of every thing we say and so?

If all the money wasted on spying on Americans were used in more constructive and useful ways, we would not have the debt we do now and this country would not be falling apart at the infrastructures level, people would have decent jobs and America would be the great shining beacon it claims to be, but is not now.

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By Ross Wolf, July 19, 2010 at 9:10 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Government Contractors Spy, and Are Asset Bounty Hunters

In 2008 Telecoms were granted government immunity after they helped U.S. Government spy on millions of Americans’ electronic communications. Since, Government has not disclosed what happened to NSA’s millions of collected emails, faxes and phone call information that belong to U.S. Citizens? Could those wiretaps perhaps illegal, become a problem for some Americans? Neither Congress nor the courts—determined what NSA electronic surveillance could be used by police or introduced into court by the government to prosecute Citizens.

In 2004, former Attorney General John Ashcroft asked government prosecutors to review thousands of old intelligence files including wiretaps to retrieve information prosecutors could use in “ordinary” criminal prosecutions. That was shortly after a court case lowered a barrier that prior, blocked prosecutors from using illegal-wire tap evidence in Justice Dept. “Intelligence Files” to prosecute ordinary crimes. It would appear this information, may also be used by government to prosecute civil asset forfeitures.
See: http://www.securityfocus.com/news/5452 

Considering that court case, it appears NSA can share its electronic-domestic-spying with government contractors and private individuals that have security clearances to facilitate the arrest and forfeiture of Americans’ property—-to keep part of the bounty. Police too easily can take an innocent person’s hastily written email, fax, phone call or web post out of context to allege a crime or violation was committed to cause an arrest or asset forfeiture.

There are over 200 U.S. laws and violations mentioned in the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 and the Patriot Act that can subject property to civil asset forfeiture. Under federal civil forfeiture laws, a person or business not be charged with a crime for government to forfeit their property. In the U.S., private contractors and their operatives work so close with police exchanging information, to arrest Americans and or share in the forfeiture of their assets, they appear to merge with police.

Rep. Henry Hyde’s bill HR 1658 passed, the “Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000” and effectively eliminated the “statue of limitations” for Government Civil Asset Forfeiture. The statute now runs five years from when police allege they “learned” that an asset became subject to forfeiture. With such a weak statute of limitations and the low standard of civil proof needed for government to forfeit property “A preponderance of Evidence”, it is problematic law enforcement and private government contractors will want access to NSA and other government wiretaps perhaps illegal and Citizens’ private information U.S. Government agencies glean monitoring the Internet, to arrest Americans and to seize their homes, inheritances and businesses under Title 18USC and other laws. Of obvious concern, what happens to fair justice in America if police and government contractors become dependent on “Asset Forfeiture” to pay their salaries and operating costs?

Under the USA Patriot Act, witnesses including government contractors can be kept hidden while being paid part of the assets they cause to be forfeited. The Patriot Act specifically mentions using Title 18USC asset forfeiture laws: those laws include a provision in Rep. Henry Hyde’s 2000 bill HR 1658—for “retroactive civil asset forfeiture” of “assets already subject to government forfeiture”, meaning “property already tainted by crime” provided “the property” was already part of or “later connected” to a criminal investigation in progress” when HR.1658 passed. That can apply to more than two hundred federal laws and violations Government can forfeit property—requiring only “A Preponderance of Civil Evidence” little more than hearsay.

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elfuncle's avatar

By elfuncle, July 19, 2010 at 5:52 am Link to this comment

“A hidden world, growing beyond control.” Wow. An estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances. Gee whiz. Almost a million superspies. Hmmm… there’s got to be an awful lot of double and triple agents there, and even quadruple agents. Quite a cloak-and-dagger circus.

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By eir, July 19, 2010 at 4:52 am Link to this comment

Forget about tourism, that’s a thing of the past for every struggling town.  Terrorism is what pays.  It’s the new growth industry.  And, we’re good at producing it!

Government handles the fear, Wall Street the swindles, and the ministry of propaganda handles the lies that make it all possible.

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By nader paul kucinich gravel mckinney, July 19, 2010 at 4:07 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

America where are you now? 
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters? 
 
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster

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