Every day I wake up and ask myself why our government is so big, and every night I go to bed and ask myself why it is so ineffective. And then I always end up remembering that my questions actually answer one another.
One week ago, The Washington Post unveiled a spectacular two-years-in-the-making project, “Top Secret America,” regarding the enormous size and scope of the secret world created by our government in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
The project states: “Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.” In addition, the project reports there are now an estimated 845,000 people who hold top-secret security clearances. By the way, that’s almost 1.5 times the amount of people currently living in Washington, D.C. That sounds safe.
And how exactly has this bureaucracy been protecting us? CNET News reported one week ago that more than 70,000 blogs were shut down after their platform Blogetery.com was unplugged from its hosting company. It was later found out that the hosting company, Burst.net, was contacted by the FBI, which warned them of bomb-making tips and a hit list located on one of the blogs.
That blog was an online al-Qaida magazine called Inspire. One of its entries included an article called “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” if that gives you an idea of the immense seriousness of the situation.
Eventually, the FBI “suggested” that Burst.net stop hosting Blogetery due to its violation of terms of service. Burst.net complied.
I have two ideas that would have been easier and more effective. The first would be to - I don’t know - take down that one blog instead of all 70,000-plus of them. Or, second, keep the blog online and track its visitors.
Considering it’s a recruitment tool, wouldn’t the FBI like to know whom it’s recruiting? Supposedly that would be just too easy.
We should create a Department of Blogs so we don’t all stay awake at night wondering if al-Qaida is spreading rumors about us.
Let’s just get this straight. Right now, we have an overly huge government trying to protect us from terrorism by means of blog-tracking. We have a ridiculous number of military bases in a ridiculous number of countries, yet we cannot seem to stop an invasion of illegal immigrants from Mexico at our own borders because, supposedly, as The Boston Globe reported, several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances are too busy downloading child pornography on their government computers.
Woo hoo, baby! Talk about feeling safe! Government, please, please, please take it down 16 notches. Keep it small. Keep it safe. Keep us free.
Reach Brian at brian.p.anderson@asu.edu
