Dec 22

Written by:
12/22/2010 8:39 AM 

It is sad to see that the number of national – and state – security organizations have ballooned since 9/11 – despite the effort to consolidate efforts under the Department of Homeland Security. With openness and transparency a hallmark of civilized society, it is a bleak commentary that we have been forced to spend so much public funds on what is essentially overhead, an unproductive economic activity.

• 3,202 organizations are needed to work on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence?
• 854,000 people need top-secret security clearances?!
• The equivalent of 3 Pentagons of office space is needed for this?
• Much of the voluminous data collected is ignored & unused?

This new security apparatus is so diffuse there is no accountability and control. Thankfully an ongoing report from the Washington Post is working to shed some light on the magnitude of the problem – both nationally and in each of our states.

Here's the data for Washington State:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/states/washington/

In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means "crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living". That seems to ring true for our current situation – yet again.