Your Ticket Into Top Secret U.S. Operations

Everyone has had their Big Brother fears, experiences and conspiracy theories or realities since the U.S. government began vastly enlarging its secret operations in the wake of September 11th, 2001. Now you can find out how true they actually are in two ways: a groundbreaking investigation and veritably novel online reporting methods from the Washington Post, two years in the making; and thousands of controversial classified documents from WikiLeaks, just released.

The Post's report is called "Top Secret America," and everyone concerned with the security of, civil liberties within and questionable constitutionality of covert government operations in this country will be captivated. I highly recommend exploring the investigative report's website.

Twelve of the Post's top journalists, led by Pulitzer-prize winning Dana Priest and veteran military affairs reporter William M. Arkin have put together shocking and revealing information. They make Deep Throat seem shallow, and double agents to see double. But is a secret still a secret when it's told?

In addition to maps indicating where top secret government work is talking place, and a searchable database of information on secret operations, funding and results, the site offers a unique leans into various types of covert work.  These include air and satellite operations, border control, building and personal security, counter-drug operations, and Counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) operations, to name a few.

Then there's the highly controversial confidential war documents released by Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. Having previously reported on his daring exploits and the serious whistleblower ethics issues they raise, this week WikiLeaks released upwards of 90,000 pages of documents related to the war in Afghanistan. Assange, for his part, claims that there is ample evidence of war crimes committed by the U.S., noting that the period the document covers is primarily based in the George W. Bush presidency.

Although in no way as well organized and presented as "Top Secret America," Wikileaks has them beat on quantity and potential implications. (This, of course, once reporters, investigators and avid citizen researchers sift through the information.) It also certainly begs the question of whether too much information can sometimes be as useful as no information at all.

However, the vast informative exposure of American secret or covered-up operations at home and abroad on these two very different sites makes me wonder and worry even more about what they didn't find out, and we might never. Maybe for the best, maybe for the worst, only historians of the future will know, if indeed they will.

Photo credit: notionscapital