By Cliff Montgomery – July 19th, 2010
A massive and largely unaccountable spy network created by the U.S. government shortly after 9/11 now is sohuge that it may be impossible to determine its usefulness, according to a two-year study from TheWashington Post.
“The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, hasbecome so large, so unwieldy and so secretive,” states a summary from the Post’s online multimediapresentation of the investigation, “that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs,[or] how many programs exist within it.”
The Post adds that its investigation has helped to expose “a Top Secret America hidden from public view andlacking in thorough oversight.
“After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth,” states the Post summary, “the result is that thesystem put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible todetermine.”
Among other issues, the Post investigation revealed that the intelligence experts who analyze all this dataobtained through spying and other methods “share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reportseach year – a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.”
“In the Department of Defense, where more than two-thirds of the intelligence programs reside, only a handfulof senior officials”–routinely referred to as Super Users–“have the ability to even know about all thedepartment’s activities,” according to the Post summary.
“I’m not going to live long enough to be briefed on everything” one so-called ‘Super User’ told the Post.
Another recalled for the newspaper the experience of his first Super User briefing. The man was brought into acramped, dark room, put before a small table and was told he could not take notes on what he was about tosee.
A tidal wave of information flashed on a video screen in quick succession–so much that this increasinglyfrustrated individual had little choice but to yell ”Stop!” to those feeding him the rivers of data.
