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"Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation

projects.washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 54 posts

Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation

#12
post #5

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society…

See: Bay of Pigs, the unfortunate matter of the Diem family; etc.

Or just see: Allen Dulles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Welsh_Dulles

Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation

#15
You can get to the full text of the first article "A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control" here:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articl...

It paints the national security apparatus as the expensive, bureaucratic clusterfuck one would expect it to be.

Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation

#18
post #5

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society…

See: Bay of Pigs, the unfortunate matter of the Diem family; etc.

I don't think this is the same thing. You're conflating a bureaucracy and expenditure problem with the CIA. I mean it's hard to say which one is the bigger problem, but they're very clearly 2 different issues.

The problem with pointed out by the article is that there's a closed community within the security apparatus that has grown so big and extensive that it's difficult for the government to control, and could give us a situation where the tail wags the dog. Greater transparency there could be helpful.

On the other hand I don't see how the CIA could work without secrecy. It's nuts.

Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation

#19
post #5

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society…

See: Bay of Pigs, the unfortunate matter of the Diem family; etc.

You are confusing the fallible person who delivered the speech with the principles a country was founded upon.

And, BTW, Ngô Ðình Diêm's family name was Ngô, not Diêm.

Re: "Top Secret America": The Washington Post's contracting investigation

#20
post #17

850,000 people have top secret clearance? It doesn't feel that secret...

Well America is 300 million. 850,000 then is about 0.30 percent of the population. Thus, it is secret to the 99.70% of the American population. That sounds very secret to me.
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