Top Secret America Summary

Jeri Enriquez

Allison St Dennis

English 101

September 12, 2012

Top Secret America: 9/11 to the Boston Bombings

Top Secret America, written by William M. Arkin and Dana Priest, is about the increased government surveillance in results of the 9/11 attacks. The whole operation is much classified, but it works to protect America from terrorist attacks. After 9/11, the government prioritized itself on preventing a strike like that to ever occur again. Government approved the NSA, National Security Agency, to intersect telephone calls and e-mails from American citizens without a warrant. This resulted in the increase of private intelligence buildings. The facilities are hidden “in plain sight,” they look like normal business buildings within our own neighborhood. But in reality they are government buildings that sort through thousands of telephone calls and e-mail from citizens. Some also accommodate pilots that direct drones located in dangerous terrorist countries. These agencies have headquarters that are worth 3.4 billion dollars, and in every state there is at least one High-Tech Terrorism Center. However, is all this effort really going to make a difference in the protection of American citizens? There is much debate whether events such as the Nigerian boy boarding a plane with a bomb, and the Boston Bombings that could have been avoided. But even with all the funding and resources put into this top secret bureau, there are still some things we cannot prevent. In spite of all the efforts put in, this is not something that the government can just cut budgets on because then they are to blame for the vulnerability it will leave the country.