Posted on 07/26/2010 4:42:33 PM PDT by Nachum
A clarifying bomblet drops in the final paragraph of the opening installment of the big Washington Post series on what is best described as National Intelligence Sprawl:
"Soon, on the grounds of the former St. Elizabeths mental hospital in Anacostia, a $3.4 billion showcase of security will rise from the crumbling brick wards. The new headquarters will be the largest government complex built since the Pentagon. ..."
National security meets mental hospital: How tragically appropriate. And yes, these inmates will definitely be running the asylum -- some of the Post-estimated 854,000 Americans with top secret clearance now filling massive new government complexes all over the country -- another unwanted legacy of 9/11.
Some of my conservative brethren worry that the Post series reveals national security secrets. The question is, with nearly a million people possessing top secret clearance, how many secrets are left to reveal? Is it possible that our national security apparatus has gotten too big not to fail?
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Agreed....I was just going to add that West has no real clue as to the multiple levels of clearances in a “security clearance”........
The president has access to the highest state secrets. Sixty nine million American voters gave him clearance. That's how it works in his case. There's nobody that tells the president, "I'm sorry sir but that information is classified. Please leave the room."
And you can guarantee a background check was performed on him and his entire family when he threw his hat into the ring for senate. Not that the results would've mattered when the voters spoke.
It's sad that it took John Walker for the military to tighten down on who had access to what. Being a radioman he had just about carte blanc to see whatever he could ask for. They really screwed down the clamps after he was arrested. A good example was that poor sap Kurt Lessenthien, who tried doing what Walker did just 20 years too late to get away with it.
I even had a worthless little NATO Secret.
I think that one means that EVERYONE has access.
:-p
Remains to be seen. The current plans for the site do not include a Metro station. I do not think they will end up moving the entire department out there. I think some of the agencies will remain in DC. But that’s just me.
Agree. There are some skill sets in DOD that need closer overwatch an false flag disinformation feeds.
Push the press to test button more often.
I note that lie detector tests are given only to those hired post 9/11 now. Bad move for proper check an balance per my experience.
I have had a goobermint clearance of multiple flavors since age 18.
Security is worse since cold war era IMO due nsider threat an polidiots with no need to know pandering to the press....
Bad deal...
A ridiculous premise that can only have been proposed by someone who doesn't understand basic information security and its foundational "need to know" principle.
Like one intelligence agency sending their reports or work to several other intelligence agencies, and those other intelligence agencies sending it back to them rewritten some with their own name on it. Its a dog eat dog world in those intelligence agencies, got to complete for the same money doing the same thing.
My greatest fear about our response to 9/11 was that we would lose the next war by focusing ourselves to much on the current one.
I was afraid that the effort to "connect the dots" would lead to a central clearinghouse of all information. This might help in the short run to get every last Islamic sleeper cell, but it would allow one-stop-shopping for a well-placed agent from a future resurgent Russia or China.
No background check. None is required for POTUS. Just wishful thinking.
Another thing this article doesn’t seem to recognize is that clearances last as long or longer than most drivers’ licenses - 10 years for secret, and 3 years for top secret, and 2 years for an inactive secret. A guy I know got cleared by his employer but is not working on any classified stuff at the moment - they cleared him because he might at some point in the future, and activating a clearance is quicker than getting one.
They’re probably counting both active and inactive clearances in the 854,000 figure.
Who woul have done that “guaranteed” backgroun check? The DNC—now that’s funny.
Here’s how it actually works:
http://joytiz.com/2009/barry’s-got-the-nuke-codes-but-no-security-clearance/
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