Top Secret America

A Pulitzer Prize winner presents “a breathtaking investigative account of America's vast new secret world . . . An invaluable book” (Los Angeles Times).

The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/eleven terrorist attacks has become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere. The result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe may be putting us in greater danger.

In Top Secret America, award-winning reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin uncover the enormous size, shape, mission, and consequences of this invisible universe of over one,300 government facilities in every state in America; nearly two,zero outside companies used as contractors; and more than 850,zero people granted “Top Secret” security clearance.

A landmark exposé of a new, secret “Fourth Branch” of American government, Top Secret America is a tour de force of investigative reporting—and a book sure to spark national and international alarm.

“Ambitious . . . Since Priest and Arkin themselves lack security clearances, part of the interest of their book is how they acquired so much secret information.” —Washington Post

“An important book. . . . Priest and Arkin . . . blow the whistle on how, since 9/eleven and the adoption of the Patriot Act, the government and its contractors use classification and security screens to conceal expenditures that have failed to enhance national security.” —Publishers Weekly