A hidden world, growing beyond control
Dana Priest and Williams M. Arkin
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.
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………..read more:
http://washingtonpost.com
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By Matt DeLong
Washington Post
Palin invents word ‘refudiate,’ compares herself to Shakespeare
By Matt DeLong
The Twittersphere erupted Sunday when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tweeted that “peaceful Muslims” should “refudiate” the mosque being built in New York City near where the Twin Towers once stood. Palin found herself the butt of many tweets, as refudiate, of course, is not a word in the English language.
After deleting the offending tweet, Palin replaced it with another calling on “peaceful New Yorkers” to “refute the Ground Zero mosque plan,” which only added to the confusion because it would appear the word she was looking for was “repudiate.” Then came the kicker: To quell the vicious Twitter-ribbing she was receiving, Palin unleashed yet another tweet comparing herself to no less than the Bard of Avon.
read more………..http://washingtonpost.com
ADMIN NOTE: As much as I dislike Palin and can’t understand why people would even remotely consider her for President, let alone run the local Chicken Mcnuggets, I have to admit she definitely has entertainment value.
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BP photoshops fake photo of crisis command center, posts on main BP site
by John Aravosis (DC)
American blogger
DATE 12:08PM Eastern 7/20/10: BP has faked yet another oil crisis response photo on its Web site.
UPDATE: 11:14PM Eastern: BP has now posted the “original” photo, they claim. Except – surprise – they are refusing to post the high-resolution version of the new “original” photo (update: they’ve now posted the original photo). They posted the high-res version of the altered photo earlier, and in fact, that version is still live via a link below the new photo. Why not post the high-res version of the new “original” photo? Afraid someone is going to enlarge it and find out it’s fake too?
UPDATE 10:37PM Eastern: The Washington Post has the story now. Oddly, BP is now claiming that the photo is real – but it showed blank screens, and rather than show blank screens at AP’s crisis center, they instead put fake content-filled screens in the photo. Uh, a few questions.
1) Why were the screens in the crisis center blank in the middle of the crisis? Coffee break?
2) The BP spokesman claims that the photographer photoshopped the changes. Really? A professional photographer hired by BP Photoshops so poorly that a 12 year old kid could do a better job. Really? Let me show you what BP said exactly, and then the photo that supposedly this “professional” edited:
Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, said that there was nothing sinister in the photo alteration and provided the original unaltered version. He said that a photographer working for the company had inserted the three images in spots where the video screens were blank.
Now here is the Photoshop job that the “professional” photographer did – this is just one part of the photo that he screwed up………………You have to read the rest of the article…..go to:
http://americanblog.com
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National geographic
* Picture of soldiers standing atop a cocaine submarine in swampy waters
Photograph from Reuters via National Geographic
Ecuadorian police pose atop what U.S. officials called a “game changing”submarine built by drug smugglers on July 2 near the town of San Lorenzo (map), just south of the Colombian border.
Unlike previous known “cocaine subs,” which could dip only just below the surface, the illegal craft appears capable of diving as deep as 65 feet (20 meters).
Seized before its maiden voyage, the 98-foot-long (30-meter-long) fiberglass sub was big enough to hold six to ten tons of cocaine and six crew members. The remote swamp camp where it was built was outfitted for up to 50 workers, though only 1 was present at the time of the raid.
With a ballast system never before seen in a cocaine sub, the handmade sub suggests smugglers are rapidly improving on the more common, semisubmersible designs, which are already difficult to detect.
“It’s obviously an eye-opener,” said Michael Braun, a former chief of operations with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which assisted in the seizure operation.
“There’s been a lot of speculation,” said Braun, now with Spectre Group International, a private security company. “But now there’s direct evidence that the bad guys have the ability to build these things and put them into service.”
(Related: Get cocaine-submarine pictures and facts from the National Geographic Channel.)
Published July 13, 2010
Read More……..http://nationalgeographic.com
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Here come the tears.
Hillary Rodham Clinton says she and former President Bill Clinton are very happy for the end-of-the-month wedding of their only child, Chelsea, though she knows they’ll be emotional at the happy occasion.
“You should assume that if he makes it down the aisle in one piece, it’s going to be a major accomplishment,” the secretary of state said of the former president in an NBC interview. “He is going to be so emotional, as am I.”
Chelsea Clinton, 30, a graduate student at Columbia University, is marrying investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, 32, on July 31. The couple is said to be tying the knot about two hours north of New York City, in Rhinebeck, N.Y.
Though some tidbits have leaked out, the official wedding details are staying as classified as a state secret.
“My lips are sealed,” said Clinton, who reportedly has titled herself MOTB (Mother of the Bride, in wedding lingo).
“I’m under very strict orders not to talk about it and I think for the right reasons,” Clinton said in the NBC interview Sunday from Pakistan. The interviewed aired this morning on the “Today” show. “It is hers, and it’s a family wedding. The people coming are her friends and people that have been meaningful in her life, as it should be.”
Clinton’s consolation to those still waiting for their invite: “We love you all, but this is her wedding.”
The highly anticipated event, likened to a royal wedding, is reportedly being held at an up-state secluded property, Astor Courts, which was the former estate of tycoon John Jacob Astor………..read more
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