A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control | Washingtonpost.Com Page 1 of 3

A hidden world, growing beyond control | washingtonpost.com Page 1 of 3

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These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington A hidden world, growing 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 beyond control 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 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 The investigation's other findings include: 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 * Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on same work. 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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LATEST FROM AROUND THE WEB Follow us on Twitter! @PostTSA "Top Secret America" is a project nearly two years in the Use hashtag #topsecretamerica making that describes the huge national security buildup in the The Washington Post Reveals 'Top Secret United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. | Read More » America' (The Atlantic Wire) Become a fan of Top Secret Search Through Top Secret America's Network of America on Facebook: Private Spooks Wired TopSecretAmerica Manic Monday Expected in Washington: How Many Mil Contractors Are There? (The Seminal) More than a dozen Washington Post journalists spent two years developing Top Secret America. | See the details » PART 1: JULY 19, 2010

TALK TO US A hidden world, growing beyond control VIDEO Want to contribute to this ongoing project? REFERENCE Top Secret America on Frontline

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A note on this project Frontline video The Washington Post's press release Latest Headlines A short video from PBS’s FRONTLINE on The Post’s two-year m investigation. An hour-long documentary film will run in October. Watch the trailer »

THE REPORTERS Dana Priest Investigative reporter Dana Priest has been The Washington Post's intelligence, Pentagon and health-care reporter. She has won numerous awards, including the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for public service for "The Other Walter Reed" and the 2006 Pulitzer for beat reporting for her work on CIA secret prisons and counterterrorism operations overseas. She is author of the 2003 book, "The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America's Military, (W.W. Norton).

William M. Arkin William M. Arkin has been a columnist and reporter with The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com since 1998. He has worked on the subject of government secrecy and national security affairs for more than 30 years. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books about the U.S. military and national security.

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PROJECT CREDITS William M. Arkin, Stephanie Clark, Ben de la Cruz, Kat Downs, Anne Ferguson-Rohrer, Justin Ferrell, David Finkel, Jennifer Jenkins, Jacqueline Kazil, Lauren Keane, Todd Lindeman, Greg Manifold, Jennifer Morehead, Bonnie Jo Mount, Ryan O'Neil, Dana Priest, Sarah Sampsel, Whitney Shefte, Laura Stanton, Julie Tate, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, Michael Williamson, Karen Yourish, Amanda Zamora

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