(April 14, 2023)
Peo0le with clearance and access to „Top Secret“ U.S.federal government information, by employee type
Government 605.579
Contractor 472.576
Other 173.803
Total 1.251.958
As of Oct.1, 2019
Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence via Federation of American Scientists
(July 20, 2010)
The Post investigation uncovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America created since 9/11 that is hidden from public view, lacking in thorough oversight and so unwieldy that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.
It is also a system in which contractors are playing an ever more important role. The Post estimates that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. There is no better example of the government‘s dependency on them than at the CIA, the one place in government that exists to do things overseas that no other U.S. agency is allowed to do.
(…)
Contractors kill enemy fighters. They spy on foreign governments and eavesdrop on terrorist networks. They help craft war plans. They gather information on local factions in war zones. They are the historians, the architects, the recruiters in the nation‘s most secretive agencies. They staff watch centers across the Washington area. They are among the most trusted advisers to the four-star generals leading the nation‘s wars.
First, history has shown that governments and bureaucracies tend to become addicted to a war footing, with failure sucking them in further — think of America’s war on terror, or Vietnam. War encourages a perverse cycle of escalation in which huge financial and political gains accrue for governments and the military-industrial complex while the costs tend to be borne by weaker parties — before they start to come home in some shape or form.
We’ve called this bipartisan pattern “wreckonomics” and have found it especially present in wars or conflicts with costs that Western politicians can largely outsource — from fighting terrorism, drugs and smugglers to quasi-colonial interventions during the Cold War.
Die Regulierung und Kontrolle von Geheimdiensten ist eine nationale Angelegenheit. Deshalb unterscheidet sich die unabhängige Aufsicht zwischen den einzelnen Staaten. Nur 15 der 27 EU-Staaten haben überhaupt unabhängige Aufsichtsbehörden.
(August 16, 2022)
The Director of National Intelligence publishes what is described as an annual report, “Security Clearance Determinations,” although the most recent one I could find was from 2017.
In it, more than 2.8 million people are described as having security clearance as of October 2017 – more than 1.6 million have access to either Confidential or Secret information and nearly 1.2 million are described as having access to Top Secret information.
(24. Juli 2010)
– Von den 854.000 Personen mit dem Sicherheitszugang “Top Secret” sind 265.000 kommerzielle Vertragsnehmer, rund 30 Prozent des Arbeitspersonals im Spionage-Komplex.
– Im “Ministerium für Heimatschutz” (“Department of Homeland Security” DHS) arbeiten genauso viele staatliche Beamte wie Vertragsnehmer, in der Spionageabteilung stellt das “private” Personal sogar 60 Prozent. Das Heimatschutz-Ministerium hat Verträge mit 318 Konzernen, von denen allein 19 sich ausschließlich mit der Rekrutierung neuer Vertragsnehmer beschäftigen.
– 56 Firmen im Spionage-Komplex sind nur damit beschäftigt, ständig neue Linguisten, Sprachwissenschaftler und Dolmetscher zu rekrutieren. Anschliessend werden sie an die US-Regierungsbehörden weitervermietet, um auf dem ganzen Planeten abgehörte Telefonate und Gespräche, sowie abgefangene emails und Telekommunikation zu übersetzen und zu interpretieren.
– für die 16 US-Spionagedienste erstellen allein 400 Konzerne Datenverarbeitungs- und informationstechnische Systeme zur internen Kommunikation zwischen den Diensten und deren jeweiliger Computernetzwerke.
– die “National Security Agency” (NSA), die weltweite Telekommunikation abfängt und elektronische Überwachungen durchführt, bezahlt zur Zeit 484 Konzerne, u.a. für die Entwicklung neuer Spionage-Technologien.
– die planetare Satelliten-Spionage des “National Reconnaissance Office” (NRO), einem der wichtigsten von offiziell 16 Spionagediensten der USA, wäre nicht möglich ohne die Zuarbeit von vier großen Konzernen, die als Vertragsnehmer für die NRO arbeiten.
– Bei der CIA sind von (offiziell) 30.000 Personalstand 10.000 Personen externe, nichtstaatliche Vertragsnehmer aus sage und schreibe 114 Firmen. Viele von ihnen sind nur für zeitlich begrenzte Jobs oder Operationen an Bord und kommen aus der Militärspionage.
Die CIA ist das Beispiel für eine Regierungsagentur, welche nicht mehr ohne dieses kommerzielle Hilfspersonal auskommt, obwohl gerade sie Operationen durchführt, die keiner anderen Behörde gesetzlich erlaubt ist.
(July 20, 2010)
The Post investigation uncovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America created since 9/11 that is hidden from public view, lacking in thorough oversight and so unwieldy that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.
It is also a system in which contractors are playing an ever more important role. The Post estimates that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. There is no better example of the government‘s dependency on them than at the CIA, the one place in government that exists to do things overseas that no other U.S. agency is allowed to do.
(…)
Most of these contractors do work that is fundamental to an agency‘s core mission. As a result, the government has become dependent on them in a way few could have foreseen: wartime temps who have become a permanent cadre.
(17 October 2019)
The United States wins the Vietnam War and President Nixon‘s Watergate scandal is never exposed — mostly because he enlists one of the Watchmen who has turned evil to kill Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Nixon also abolishes term limits, so he is still president in 1985, which is when the film is set.
(…)
The phrase dates back to the 1st/2nd century Roman poet Juvenal, who wrote satires about tyrannical governments, oppressive dictatorships and law enforcement corruption. The original phrase is „Quis custodiet ipsos custodes“ in Latin, which literally translates to „Who will guard the guards themselves,“ the modern version of which has become „Who watches the watchmen?“