Top Secret America, being an investigative project, embodies a voluminous and comprehensive reporting. The clinical and wholesome inclusion of all sectors dealing with upholding intelligence information and security puts this project by the Washington post in the same line with the knowledge base that we have learned from the course on intelligence community.
Intelligence service is a secret service which information is hidden to only the engaged parties, but this axiom is true in relation to the knowledge gained during the class work. The Washington post serves it right and incisive by exposing hidden network of intelligence community in the United States of America.
The Washington Post brought the existence and prevalent scope of the intelligent community in the United States of America to the public domain. In my opinion, the Washington Post, in their project entitled Top Secret America, did a comprehensive investigative work that employed frameworks mainstreamed at revealing the hidden intelligence community to the public.
Broad inspection and analysis of the findings of the Washington Post’s investigation show that public had access to only a tip of ice berg of the information. The true knowledge, the operations, and the entire administration of the intelligence community in the United States were hidden from the public eye (Priest & Arkin).
The Washington post accurately portrays the true picture of the intelligence community as it exists in the midst of the public. Washington Post’s comprehensive and conclusive investigation clinically examines the framework upon which the intelligence system is based, its effectiveness in provision and assurance of safety and security within the boundaries of the United States.
The Washington Post further seeks to explore the financial viability of the entire huge intelligence set up as reported by the Top Secret America project.
The investigation brings to the board the total number of governmental agencies as 1,271 and 1,931 private sector companies all entangled in the amorphous and expanding intelligence community. This portrays the true picture and definition of the intelligence community in the United States. This is because the investigation project ‘Top Secret America’ ensured extensive exploration and extensive consultation in preparation of the report.
While I hold the stand that the Washington Post did a credible work by exploring the complex and hidden sides of the intelligence community and executed a broadcast of the findings to the public, I still have an implausible attitude towards their investigation account.
In line with this reserved feeling, the Washington post focused majorly on terrorism and related crimes but side-lined the intelligence on other departments, such as drug enforcement agencies (Priest & Arkin).
The other dubious issue that was construed from the finding as reported by the Top Secret America is the lack of the incisive or concise role played by the top government in the entire network of the intelligence community. The Washington post reports that the state and local governments did not take part in the top secret level.
This fact obscures the understanding of the general framework of the secret intelligence community since it is conventional that establishment of the intelligence community of a country is based on the governments’ need for top security agencies.
The Washington Post further failed to clarify the importance of maintaining secrecy on the intelligence, which was for the sake of security and safety of the public and country. I see this as a debatable issue which, in my opinion the Washington Post should have considered finding out and explaining to the public why they kept it a secret yet it was an exploration for public consumption (Priest & Arkin)
Works Cited
Priest, Danaand and William Arkin. “A Hidden World, Growing beyond Control”. The Washington Post, 2001. Web.
Priest, Danaand and William Arkin. “Top Secret America Methodology”. The Washington Post, 2001. Web.