Libertas Continued

In their new, groundbreaking series of articles in the Washington Post, authors Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, draw us a terrifying picture of government secrecy out of control. * Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States, with 858,000 Top-Secret Employees. * Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks. (yet none can tell us who dumped all that airline stock right before 9/11?) "There has been so much growth since 9/11 that getting your arms around that - not just for the DNI [Director of National Intelligence], but for any individual, for the director of the CIA, for the secretary of defense - is a challenge," Defense Secreta

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason. War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits. Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations. Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. - James Madison