Online Propaganda - Invisible Tool of Secret Government

[Octafish]

101. America's Outsourced Spy Force, by the Numbers

by PHILIP BUMP
The Wire, JUN 10, 2013 9:25AM ET / NATIONAL

Edward Snowden wasn't your traditional spy. He was, however, a very modern one, a guy who worked from a computer terminal in an office, similar to how a modern bomber pilot might control his drone. The weekend's big revelations about the NSA's biggest revealer prompt a natural question: How many Snowden-type spies with top secret security clearance are there?

There's another way in which Snowden was a modern spy. He didn't work for the government, but for a government contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden's emergence has drawn a great deal of attention to the company, about which it is almost certainly not excited. Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have stories detailing the growth of contractor dependency in the federal government, looking at Booz in particular. As does our sister publication National Journal, which quotes former NSA head Michael Hayden: "There isn't a phone or computer at [NSA headquarters] that the government owns."

That's primarily because of shifts in how the government operates. Right now, federal employees make up less than one percent of the American population.

SNIP...

In its look at Booz, the Times indicates how closely the company is tied to the government.

As evidence of the company’s close relationship with government, the Obama administration’s chief intelligence official, James R. Clapper Jr., is a former Booz executive. The official who held that post in the Bush administration, John M. McConnell, now works for Booz.

That means that there are an estimated 450,000 people beyond those that work for Booz who have top secret clearance. Again, the Times:

“The national security apparatus has been more and more privatized and turned over to contractors,” said Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group that studies federal government contracting. “This is something the public is largely unaware of, how more than a million private contractors are cleared to handle highly sensitive matters.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/06/contract-security-clearance-charts/66059/

Gee. I wonder what percentage of those "In the Loop" are in the CEO suites and boardrooms, let alone in Booze Allen Hamilton's parent, the Carlyle Group and/or BFEE.

Thanks for standing up to the tyranny they represent, Zorra.