Slashdot Mirror
Top Secret America
mahiskali writes "The Washington Post published an immense interactive website today, detailing the companies and government agencies currently doing top secret work in the United States. Everything from counter-IED operations to human intelligence is touched upon. Citing various interviews with 'super users' and through exhaustive analysis of public records for over two years, this interactive site allows users to peer into the guarded world of top secret intelligence. With more than 854,000 people currently holding a TS clearance, has the defense and intelligence world grown too big, too fast? Or has this large growth served us well, exemplified by no successful terrorist acts on US soil since 9/11? How can we judge the success of these programs, when much of it will never be known by the general public?"
Let's see: There have been successful terrorist attacks around the world since 9/11. These attacks imply that terrorists are still active. Terrorists groups have re-asserted their ongoing desire to conduct similar attacks with in the US. Moreover, some such attempts have been made in the US but largely prevented. I'd say those might imply causation, douchebag.
Funny that in Europe many people think its the redneck militaristic Americans who are the douchebags.
There haven't been any successful terrorist attacks on Finland, Slovakia or Portugal either... and those countries can even be reached on foot from the terrorist hotspots. And they haven't severely reduced civil rights or increased their military expenses to a level that is unsustainable on the long term (although Portugal seems to have found ways to go bankrupt even without wasting money on an army).
+4 Insightful? Really? This is clearly flamebait. And since I as a US citizen have a distaste for shit talking europeans, I will bite:
I shall point out to you that you wrote your post in English. No need to thank my country or my ancestors for that, you're welcome! Or perhaps you are of the sort that would prefer the world to speak German?
I shall also point out that Islam seeks power and money, and that I am not sure one would find either in any of the "countries" you listed.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Or the plane that was flown into the IRS building. Or the shooting in Fort Hood. Or U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello's brother's gas line being cut.
Then again, I thought 9/11 wasn't supposed to count either, because it happened while George W. Bush was president and we're supposed to pretend that things were better back then.