Over 1 million people inhabit the parallel world created by the US Secret Services\u00a0after September 11. How does this world and how much we are not\u00a0able\u00a0to understand, because access to this information is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n
On 26 September 2002 man testified before a congressional committee on Sept. 11. He turned\u00a0to the senators with the following words: “I want all Americans to look me in the eyes\u00a0as\u00a0I looked them in the eyes\u00a0and tell them: “My name is\u00a0Cofar Black, I was\u00a0head\u00a0of the CIA\u00a0covert operations (1974-2002). Everything you need to know is that there\u00a0is\u00a0before\u00a0and after\u00a011 September. After 11\/9 rules and laws were no longer valid! “<\/p>\n
The day after September 11, President Bush convened the Security Council in a secret bunker in the basement of the White House.<\/p>\n
His adviser on terrorism Richard Clarke (1998-2001) recalls: “The president told me: “You\u00a0have everything you need.\u00a0And\u00a0it was as such. Every time I\u00a0went\u00a0to Congress,\u00a0everybody was\u00a0saying, “What do you need? Here is a blank check!”<\/p>\n
The same day in the bunker of the White House US government initiated\u00a0such a secret and ambitious program that only today we can guess about its true scale.<\/p>\n
Less than a week after the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) Bush signed in the Oval Office document giving\u00a0start of the operation “Greystone”, also called “Catch\u00a0and kill”<\/p>\n
“For 34 years I have\u00a0not seen such a detailed document, without any financial constraints. In summary inside\u00a0was\u00a0saying, “Do whatever you see fit to do the job,” sayd\u00a0John Rizzo (chief counsel of the CIA from 1975 to 2009 ).<\/p>\n
Bush ordered the CIA to take command of the operation rather than military.<\/p>\n
“For a microsecond of chained dog we\u00a0were transformed into\u00a0martial\u00a0beast: you take off\u00a0boxing gloves\u00a0to\u00a0hit and\u00a0everything\u00a0is\u00a0allowed”,\u00a0testified Kofar Black.<\/p>\n
On September 26, 2001 Gary Shoen (CIA, 1974-2002) and seven CIA agents\u00a0were parashuted\u00a0in northern Afghanistan. “I was spreadingenvelopes with dozens,\u00a0even hundreds of thousands of dollars\u00a0among\u00a0warlords and commanders of the Northern Alliance. For several weeks the Taliban swept and regained\u00a0back Kabul,” sayd\u00a0Shoen.<\/p>\n
At the same time, John McLaughlin, number 2 in the CIA,\u00a0received a phone call from his boss George Tenet. He\u00a0went\u00a0into the air operations room. Tenet turned to him: “Will you give an order, John?” McLaughlin looked\u00a0at the screen, which showed\u00a0a car traveling on a desert road in Yemen. A few seconds later, one of the leaders of “Al Qaeda”,\u00a0Sheikh Ali and his companions in the car\u00a0were blown up by drone operated remotely from a distance of 9000 km. “Done, George” reported\u00a0McLaughlin and hung up the phone.<\/p>\n
Journalists for the first time saw\u00a0the weapons whose existence\u00a0was not suspected.<\/p>\n
This\u00a0kicked\u00a0of a frantic race in the war against terrorism. In the coming years snowball thrown by the intelligence world, will continue to swell with terrible force.<\/p>\n
For two years with Dana Priest and her colleagues from the “Washington Post”\u00a0we\u00a0revealed the outlines of a secret parallel world so large and complex that it is impossible to understand fully the way it functions and is financed.\u00a0We learned only that\u00a0it\u00a0exists. We called it CLASSIFIED AMERICA.<\/p>\n
Today in the US this infernal machine uses the services of 900 000 people with access to the official level “Top Secret”.<\/p>\n
All\u00a0these\u00a0are distributed to 17,000 addresses throughout the country!<\/p>\n
1300 government agencies,\u00a0and\u00a03666\u00a0private companies\u00a0are\u00a0working under contract with the federal government.<\/p>\n
Using as a pretext the fight against terrorism, George W. Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security, under whose hat are the 17 major federal agencies (FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, NSA,\u00a0DEA, ATF, Immigration Service… and even NASA). The building in which they all will be located and which is under construction for 2 years, will represent the largest building ever built in America, surpassing even the Pentagon. Every state has a fusion centers, which collect and distribute all information among federal agencies.<\/p>\n
Nobody is able to tell how much CLASSIFIED AMERICA\u00a0costs. The budget of the NSA\u00a0is a state secret. Only the president and a handful of senators who approve it, know the numbers.<\/p>\n
And the figures relating to this “Secret America”\u00a0are\u00a0beyond imagination.<\/p>\n
Just a day carry 1.7 billion wiretaps<\/p>\n
As in the “tapping” includes checking emails, phone calls, text messages, websites and all other forms of communication considered suspicious by … unknown by whom!<\/p>\n
This parallel world\u00a0has\u00a0secret tentacles abroad\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n
Journalists investigating Guantanamo soon noticed that not all detained\u00a0in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East as a “valuable hostages” (high value targets), arrived at Guantanamo. Some disappeared.\u00a0No one knows where.<\/p>\n
“We decided that these prisoners had to be isolated out and the decision was to build secret prisons abroad. Until then we had never done\u00a0that” says John Rizzo (CIA\u00a0Judicial Council).<\/p>\n
Today we know of the existence of 24 “black holes” (black sites). This is a network of secret prisons in various countries such as Thailand, Poland, Egypt, Jordan and many others. They are all funded by the CIA and operations \u00a0for \u00a0“obtaining\u00a0information”\u00a0is\u00a0conducted by host countries.<\/p>\n
The advantage of the CIA to the military in the war against terrorism angered Donald Rumsfeld. With the claim to be the creator of empires, he decided to create his own secret world. There is some legal precedence over the CIA. Pentagon covert operations do not require systematic authorization of the president, nor a requirement to notify Congress. At the time, they were part of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pride of Rumsfeld called JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command). One of the branches of JSOC – “seals” (Navy Seals), will kill bin Laden on May 1, 2011<\/p>\n
For several years, the Bush administration created parallel secret government that is not accountable to anyone.<\/p>\n
But to function, this infernal machine needs specialized personnel, a huge staff. And fast.<\/p>\n
“I took a step in NSA, George \u2013 in the CIA we all did that. Because of the scale of the order we\u00a0turned to the private sector. It would be quicker than if such a huge number of civil servants had to be trained”, ensplaihed the scheme Gen. Michael Haydn.<\/p>\n
“Lockheed-Grumman”, “General Dynamics” and other giants of the military industrial complex, a favorite expression of Eisenhower, were also included. Yesterday’s manufacturers of planes, tanks and submarines changed their production profile within a day.<\/p>\n
In 2001 the army had 6 unmanned aircraft, today there are 6000! “General Atomics”, the creator of the unmanned aircraft, offers 21 different models, the smallest of which is the size of a large bee. For 10 years the company’s profits rose from 330 million Dollars to 4.2 billion Dollars. Only weeks ago a “General Atomics” drone exterminated spokesman “Al Qaeda” – Anwar Al-Awkali.<\/p>\n
These cutting-edge technologies raising your hair pose real issues for individual freedoms. Today it is possible to take your fingerprints with a thermal gun 50 m away, without even you knowing it! Facial Expression Recognition technology can identify and scan your bone structure from space and identify your fears and moods.<\/p>\n
This incredible technological and financial breakthrough, however, did not stop Umar Farouk Mutalab to board a flight to Detroit on Christmas 2009<\/p>\n
“If\u00a0you make a\u00a0wrong spelling, Google automatically asks: “Are you looking for…?” It seems this feature has not been set in the immigrant authorities\u2019\u00a0computer at the airport in London. They misspelled only one letter of his name and he calmly\u00a0boarded\u00a0as a regular passenger. What about the truck on\u00a0“Times Square” (May 2010) – then a hotdog vendor warned police of the suspicious vehicle”,\u00a0said Richard Clark.<\/p>\n
To me and my colleagues journalists took us 10 years to realize that one million people live in a world that did not exist before We do not even know what they\u00a0are doing because we were denied the right to know how that\u00a0world works and how much it costs.<\/p>\n
Is there a place in a true democracy\u00a0for\u00a0a secret parallel world\u00a0of more\u00a0than 1 million people? Nevertheless, Obama did nothing to slow CLASSIFIED AMERICA. On the contrary – he ordered to speed up the “Greystone” to seize and destroy the enemies of the United States abroad. On the domestic front, he increased budgets, and Congress\u00a0was\u00a0no longer able to oversee spending. Private companies and federal agencies already themselves identify their needs and their price.<\/p>\n
“If something happens and\u00a0we\u00a0become the victim of attack Republicans will\u00a0rush up\u00a0us to point fingers and accuse us, because we cut budgets. Politically this\u00a0is extremely risky”,\u00a0justified\u00a0himself\u00a0Richard Clark.<\/p>\n
Is it justified in the current economic environment\u00a0to maintain\u00a0this unimaginable financial and human waste? According to our calculations pharaonic annual budget\u00a0of\u00a0CLASSIFIED AMERICA exceeds gradually\u00a0economic incentives\u00a0of\u00a0300 billion that Obama\u00a0imposed last month, defying Republicans to ratify it in the shortest time in Congress.<\/p>\n
Parallel world of SECRET AMERICA will continue to exist among us.<\/p>\n
General Michael Haydn himself,\u00a0hleading the NSA (1999-2005) and CIA (2006-2009), is sincere: “Since\u00a040 years I have\u00a0been\u00a0in these environments, but I\u00a0do not\u00a0dare\u00a0to\u00a0say that I am familiar with all the secret programs and operations conducted before\u00a0and\u00a0now.”<\/p>\n
_______________________________<\/p>\n
Alex Jordanov<\/em> – <\/em>French investigative journalist<\/em>. He<\/em> is a participant in transnational investigation of <\/em>Washington Post about the secret program “Greystone”, launched in the fight against terrorism after the attacks of September 11, 2001<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n