NSA Leaks Raises Questions About Dark World Of Government Contracting

+Now With Alex Wagner   |  June 11, 2013

Americans secret security clearances under fire

An NBC investigation found that nearly 1.4 million people hold secret security clearance in America and that more than a third of those clearances are held by contractors. Retired U-S Army Caption and author Wes Moore, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Jared Bernstein, Anchor of BBC World News America Katty Kay, Atlantic Editor In Chief of the James Bennet and the Guardian’s National Security Editor Spencer Ackerman join NOW with Alex Wagner to discuss this startling reality.

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NSA Leaks Raises Questions About Dark World Of Government Contracting

U.S. Relies on Spies for Hire to Sift Deluge of Intelligence

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142

Edward Snowden: Exhibit A for How Washington Blows Money on Contractors

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2

Snowden leak shines light on US intelligence agencies' use of contractors

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/1

NPR Social Tools

Data Leak Could Undermine Trust In Government Contractor : NPR

Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old computer technician at the center of the NSA surveillance controversy, was an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton. In recent decades, the government has grown increasingly reliant on such firms to do critical work on national security.

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NSA Leaks Raise Questions About US Government Contractors

http://www.ibtimes.com/nsa-leaks-raises-ques

Dana Priest, William M. Arkin

Hachette Digital, Inc., Sep 6, 2011 - Political Science

The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere. The result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe may be putting us in greater danger. In TOP SECRET AMERICA, award-winning reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin uncover the enormous size, shape, mission, and consequences of this invisible universe of over 1,300 government facilities in every state in America; nearly 2,000 outside companies used as contractors; and more than 850,000 people granted "Top Secret" security clearance.

A landmark exposé of a new, secret "Fourth Branch" of American government, TOP SECRET AMERICA is a tour de force of investigative reporting-and a book sure to spark national and international alarm.