Top Secret America

The Rise of the New American Security State

By: Dana Priest, William M. Arkin

Narrated by: Dana Priest

The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/11 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 1,300 government facilities in every state in America; nearly 2,000 outside companies used as contractors; and more than 850,000 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.

Critic reviews

"A breathtaking investigative account of America's vast new secret world...An invaluable book."—Los Angeles Times

"Essential reading."—Cryptome

"Mind-boggling."—Washington Lawyer

our world post 9/11

Great book that shares the realization of our post 9/11 world, money, power, fear and our security focused government. While written in 2012, I can only believe that our government's organization of information has not improved.

Fascinating and maddening

What did you love best about Top Secret America?

The information Dana Priest reveals through her relentless journalistic efforts is not found elsewhere (at least compiled so completely).

What was one of the most memorable moments of Top Secret America?

Learning about the addition of 30+ new and specific intelligence agencies within months of 9/11, and scores more in the decade since, and how this information is barely known by anyone, including the taxpayers paying for them.

Have you listened to any of Dana Priest’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've heard Dana Priest being interviewed before (on The Diane Rehm Show, for example), so her delivery of her own material was consistent with her style and fine with me. She speaks slowly and deliberately, which apparently bothered other listeners, but it didn't bother me much.

Any additional comments?

I found this book intersting from beginning to end. The material Dana Priest uncovered is also profoundly frustrating. There's got to be a better way for America to stay safe.

Read by the author. You would think that's good

What made the experience of listening to Top Secret America the most enjoyable?

The subject is fascinating, the research well-done and careful. The national security industry is, as we all had the sneaking suspicion, a gigantic scam, the details of which no-one without a security clearance will ever know. This includes your elected representatives in government.The sheer magnitude of this new industrial complex will make you laugh. Nervously.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Dana Priest?

My hound dog. A high-school student. A recent immigrant in their second week of ESL class. Any one of a number of well-qualifed narrators. Dana Priest's rendition of her own work is flat and dull. She often misses the punctuation and cadence of her own sentences. I'm not sure what it says about a book when the author cannot be bothered to read it so that it is expressive and engaging. She sounds like she's reading someone else's work for the first time.

If you could give Top Secret America a new subtitle, what would it be?

Why the United States is spending billions of dollars on

Any additional comments?

Great subject, great book, lousy narration.

Excellent sneak peek behind the Top Secret world!!

Loved it, couldn't stop listening. Very well researched work highly recommended!! Don't miss it

worth a read

this book does help explain how US intelligence agencies find time to smuggle 100s of billions of $'s in drugs into the US each year, overthrow democratically elected governments abroad, help kill or attempt to kill US presidents and candidates (JFK, RFK, Reagan), surveil and often kill US citizens for exposing these crimes (All of these facts are heavily documented), and still find time to convince 100s of millions of Americans that 19 Muslims with box cutters, all extremely poor and unskilled pilots, overhthrew 3 planes, penetrated the strongest military and defense system in the world, and pulled off 3 of, if not the, greatest aeronautic feats in history, requiring these same intelligence agencies to spend 100s of billions of dollars more in Federal reserve created Fiat each year, which US taxpayer's VOLUNTARY income tax dollars go to pay the 10% interest they tack on to this freely created money. unfortunately the fact that the author seems to believe this ludicrous narrative of 9/11, Boston bombing, etc, takes a great deal of credibility away from all the seemingly important information written in this book. Sure is sad we have let such evil people overtake our GREAT constitutional republic.