It's a Secret. Don't Tell Anyone I Told You

The good thing about reading a good newspapers is finding things out about things that may not quite be the main part of the story, but once learned, certainly do add to your ability to hold a conversation with reasonably intelligent people at a later date. Your "chat" quotient rises considerably.

Take the story about the 25 year-old N.S.A. contractor, Reality Winner, who is alleged to have released secret documents to an Internet news source. The story is of course about the documents released, who released them, and how she was arrested. Ms. Winner is now the story.

But take in the story in the NYT that reports the news item. and we learn for instance that there are a plethora of intelligence agencies that now operate within the U.S. Government, 11 by last count, a number that swelled after the attacks of 9/11. Whether this is good or not is not the point. There are 11 agencies charged with keeping the citizens safe. Anyone who remembers any aftermath of 9/11 should remember that problems were caused by the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. not sharing information prior to the attack. There are now more agencies that can keep things to themselves. Or, do they?

Prior to reading the article, if a multiple choice question were framed asking you to pick how many people out of the 330 million citizens of the U.S. (children included) would you guess have access to classified information, my guess is you wouldn't even be close. I could play the test-maker and list four possibilities and one none-of-the above, but I'm going to guess no one would believe the number is reported to be four million government employees and contractors who are considered to have classified clearance. And of that, 1.3 million have top-secret clearance, like that once enjoyed by Ms. Winner.

That does sound like a lot of people to have access to what are being considered to be secrets, top shelf or otherwise. And with 1.3 million people with TOP SECRET clearance, you do wonder if they all can access the same pieces of information, or are there only different "rooms" they can go into?

You don't have to take sides to absorb what are hoped to be accurate facts. Now, whether it is generally perceived by those who are closer to this than us that perhaps four million and 1.3 million is a tad high, I don't know. But consider this.

In today's NYT there is a story by Timothy Williams who writes extensively about the adjusting of qualification standards going on nationwide as major cities struggle to fill their vacancies on their police forces.

Again, words in the story tell another story. Consider that Mr. Williams writes about the numerous hurdles a candidate has to pass through before becoming an officer who is licensed to use deadly force:

"The process of becoming a police officer is still onerous--it might be easier to get top-secret clearance than to be hired as a rookie cop. Evaluation can take more than a year..."

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