it took reporter dana priest years to piece together where prisoners like khalid sheikh mohammed were. they had been hidden in a secret network of cia prisons known as "black sites." >> priest: in the investigation of the black sites, i found a worldwide system of about two dozen prisons throughout the world run by the cia, paid by the cia, organized by the cia, but with cooperation from other countries. >> narrator: top cia official john rizzo helped authorize the prisons. >> rizzo: creating a prison system was something, certainly in my 25 years, we had never done. it was essential that these people be held in absolute isolation, with... with access to the fewest number of people. that quickly led to the conclusion that... that facilities had to be built oversees, secret facilities. >> narrator: for the first time, the white house had approved the building of an international prison system entirely in secret. >> priest: the amount of secrecy is phenomenal. the desire and the willingness of government to operate in secret and to deny the public, the media, the basic facts about what

. >> pulitzer prize-winning reporter dana priest investigates if it crosses a line. >> we were described as terrorists, which is absurd on many levels. >> and is it working? >> are we safer? >> are we safe enough? >> these two stories in this special edition of frontline. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. and by reva and david logan, committed to investigative journalism as the guardian of the public interest. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting and enterprise journalism. additional funding for frontline's expanded broadcast season is provided by the bill & melinda gates foundation. >> smith: 6:00 a.m., october 12, 2000. fbi agent ali soufan was on his way to work. >> i remember i w

joining us now dana priest. security state," and it's good to have you on the show this morning. you're getting response to the book already. it's been out about a week? >> yes. big interest, i think it's a world that people don't write much about because it's so hard to write about. it is what i try to do is look back ten years later and say, what did we create in response to 9/11? and we created a gigantic government structure that includes a lot of private corporations. some very focused good organizations that have made us much safer than we were on 9/11 and basically defeated almost entirely al qaeda even though other organizations are, you know, coming up, as well. but also a lot that is of questionable value. >> help us out here historically. always complained about the massive security state that sprung up after the cold war. how were things different, though, after 9/11? how is this secret state been supersized over the past decade? >> well, the main difference is the secrecy. even during the cold war,

this week dana priest and her book "top secret america: the rise of the new america s

. >> frontline and pulitzer prize- winner dana priest go inside "top secret america" >> explore moreout john o'neill and the fbi at our web site, including a rare video interview with o'neill. a look at how the 9/11 commission examined issues that were raised by john o'neill. study a chart of how al qaeda came into focus for o'neill and us intelligence in the '90s. and watch the longer, 90-minute version of this program online. follow frontline on facebook and twitter, or join the discussion at pbs.org. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. and by reva and david logan. committed to investigative journalism as the guardian of the public interest. additional funding is provided by the park foundation. dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting a

this week dana priest and her latest book, "top secret america: the rides of the new american securitytate." in it "the washington post" investigative reporter argues that the federal government's efforts to protect america after the terrorist attacks of september 11th led to the creation of multiple security programs that now employ hundreds of thousands of people with top secret security clearance. the pulitzer prize winner says this hidden bureaucracy is too vast and dangerous and needs to be exposed. she explores the issue with former undersecretary of defense douglas feith. >> host: dana, you have, have offered up an interesting and a condemnation of "top secret america." what is it? >> guest: what's top secret america? good starting question. um, it's a term that we came up with, my co-author and i, to describe a world that grew up after 9/11 in response to 9/11. we tried to collect -- we both noticed that, um, we noticed over the years after 9/11 that there were more secrets the government undertook. i was covering intelligence at the time, so i was responsible for writing about

this week, dana priest and her latest book, quote coach top-secret america the rise of the new american security state."

a new book out by dana priest called top-secret america, the rise of new american security state characterizes this as a terrorism industrial complex. we have 800,000 people who now hold top security clearances. we have 51 federal organizations and military organizations that are involved in tracking the flow of money inside and out of terrorist organizations. we have 2000 private companies and 1200 organizations, intelligence agencies that are involved in counterterrorism. it seems as though this hearing and the information that has been presented by both the panel and ancillary information is very disconcerting. what the american people should have expected in the aftermath of 9/11 is the bureaucratic response is lean, muscular, transparent and effective. it seems as though what we have is a bureaucratic response that is loaded, immobile, ineffective and not doing the very things the 9/11 commission said was most important. that was to remove the barrier that existed between federal law enforcement agencies toward the goal of sharing good informatios most effective in thwarting preempting te

also this weekend on after words, washington post reporter dana priest suggests that the federal government's effort toss protect america after september 11th are secret, dangerous and need to be exposed. also "in my time," a personal and political memoir. dick cheney talks about his experiences during 9/11 and the lessons he's learned since then. you can also look for the former vice president interviewed by bob woodward on october 2nd on "after words." find our complete schedule online at booktv.org. >>> the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, senate floor speeches from september 12th from senators schumer, clinton, warner and allen. on american artifacts from the smithsonian, recovered objects from new york, the pentagon and shanksville, pennsylvania. also this weekend from lectures in history, northwestern university professor katherine burns howard on how societal changes in the first half of the 19th century led to the birth of the women's rights movement. get the complete schedule at c-span.org/history or get our schedules e-mailed dire

a new book out by dana priest called top-secret america, the rise of new american security state characterizes this as a terrorism industrial complex. we have 800,000 people who now hold top security clearances. we have 51 federal organizations and military organizations that are involved in tracking the flow of money inside and out of terrorist organizations. we have 2000 private companies and 1200 organizations, intelligence agencies that are involved in counterterrorism. it seems as though this hearing and the information that has been presented by both the panel and ancillary information is very disconcerting. what the american people should have expected in the aftermath of 9/11 is the bureaucratic response is lean, muscular, transparent and effective. it seems as though what we have is a bureaucratic response that is loaded, immobile, ineffective and not doing the very things the 9/11 commission said was most important. that was to remove the barrier that existed between federal law enforcement agencies toward the goal of sharing good informatios most effective in thwarting preempting te

secondly, dana priest wrote an excellent series of articles in "the washington post" talking about the overlap of waste and too much intelligence. on the 9/11 commission, we talked about the frequent, but fragmentary nature of the intelligence coming in. we did not say fragmentary in terms that it was not good and robust stock. there was so much of it that some of it was not getting to the right people. now we have created a system with 80 billion in intelligence and i think there is some overlap and reduction and some waste. finally, what we had envisioned was a dni that could have oversight over the committee and manage these ideas without getting dragged into a court of law. this dni could bring out those oversights and over budget problems and architecture is the have the budget authority and personnel 40 to say that -- to save billions of dollars before the gulf to far down the line -- before they go too far down line. the office was created in the right way, but it is too big now and the authorities are not appropriate for it. >> a lot of what the commission looked at when you're

also this weekend on "after words," dana priest suggests that the federal government's efforts to protect america after september 11 are secretive and dangerous and needs to be exposed. she's being interviewed by former secretary of defense. also "in my time," dick cheney talks about his experiences during 9/11 and the lessons he learned since then. you can look at the former vice president interviewed by bob woodward on after wards. find a complete schedule online at booktv.org. >> given the downpours and flooding in the nation's capital this afternoon it wouldn't be surprising if some members are late as the session gets under way. the u.s. house about to end its month-long summer recess. they'll come in for short speeches and expected to recess and return later this afternoon to consider three bills, including one to extend duty-free products in the u.s. tomorrow, the house takes up legislation to authorize $300 million to expand charter schools throughout the country. then tomorrow evening the house meets in joint session with the senate to hear president obama's jobs plan. on friday

a new book out by dana priest called top-secret america, the rise of new american security state characterizes this as a terrorism industrial complex. we have 800,000 people who now hold top security clearances. we have 51 federal organizations and military organizations that are involved in tracking the flow of money inside and out of terrorist organizations. we have 2000 private companies and 1200 organizations, intelligence agencies that are involved in counterterrorism. it seems as though this hearing and the information that has been presented by both the panel and ancillary information is very disconcerting. what the american people should have expected in the aftermath of 9/11 is the bureaucratic response is lean, muscular, transparent and effective. it seems as though what we have is a bureaucratic response that is loaded, immobile, ineffective and not doing the very things the 9/11 commission said was most important. that was to remove the barrier that existed between federal law enforcement agencies toward the goal of sharing good informatios most efftive in thwarting preempting terr

in the recent book by dana priest, there's a market on tennessee and why they have three fusion centers. well, they didn't think they needed them, but there was grant money, so let's have three. the bottom line is there's a much smaller terrorist threat out there than is advertised much of the time, and spending our public dollars, our treasure, is an important task of government, and i think that abolishing both the transportation security administration and the dhs is a good step in the right direction. thank you. [applause] >> as david said, i thank you, all, for being here. these are important issues to the country obviously and complex issues. i think we have a good team at the cato institute working on these issues, counterterrorism and security, from a lot of different angles. along with david who gives a clear-eyed assessment of things in his recent policy analysis, my colleagues and i over the last three years or so have been working on counterterrorism policy. we conducted a pair of conferences, one in early 2009 and another in 2010. we brought in experts from around the count