3. Why does reporter Dana Priest believe the government wanted to keep their programs secret?

Transcription

1 Name: PD: TOP SECRET AMERICA DIRECTIONS: Answer the questions as you watch the video. 1. After 9/11 what was the key to the new war? 2. Did Americans understand how the war was being fought? How long did it take us to find out? BACKGROUND In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, (April 13, 2013) the threat of terrorism again confronts Americans. More than a decade after 9/11 and hundreds of billions of dollars later, there are pressing questions about whether America s investment in its terrorism industrial complex has made us safer. In FRONTLINE s Top Secret America 9/11 to the Boston Bombings, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dana Priest traces the journey from 9/11 to the Marathon bombings and investigates the secret history of the 12-year battle against terrorism. AIRDATE: April 30, Why does reporter Dana Priest believe the government wanted to keep their programs secret? 4. What did COFER BLACK and his people plan following the 9/11 attacks? What was presented to the WH? 6. What was the CIA s code name for the program? Was the CIA in front of the military in Afghanistan? 7. What did the presidential authorization written by George W. Bush call for? Note: This would be the largest covert authorization since the cold war. 8. What did the CIA do with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan? SCAN FOR TRANSCRIPT 9. In how many countries were operatives fighting a covert secret war? 10. Did Americans know we had the ability to use drones at the time of the Yemen attack? 12. What ethical questions were raised by the drone attack? 13. What did Dana Priest learn was being done to high value detainees? 14. How many times was Khalid Sheik Mohammad waterboarded?

2 15. What did Dana Priest learn about the black sites? 16. What was the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)? Why were they used instead of the Army? 17. How did Rumsfeld use JSOC to fight the dominance of the CIA in the war on terror? Does JSOC need presidential approval for their operations? 18. What happened to JOSC soldiers in Afghanistan? Where did they deploy? 19. What was the Office of Special Plans set up to establish? Is it possible that the Pentagon used the war in Iraq as a method of pushing back against the ever growing power of the CIA in post 9/11 America? (Opinion). 20. Was the information gained vetted before it made its way to the Vice President and the press? 21. How did Rumsfeld s JSOC team lead the way in the war in Iraq? 22. What did the Terrorist Surveillance Program authorize the NSA to do without a warrant? 23. What did the NSA create globally? 24. How many intercepts did the NSA capture everyday? 25. What did the NSA turn to in order to help them? 26. How many private companies assist the NSA? KEY PLAYERS DONALD RUMSFELD Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2007 Rumsfeld was crucial in planning the United States' response to the September 11 attacks, which included two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. COFER BLACK Coordinator for Counterterrorism (Bush) Appointed by Bush in He led the Office of Counterterrorism in the U.S. State Dpt. until He had been a director of operations for the CIA for 28 years prior. JOHN RIZZO CIA Lawyer Signed off on memos from Bush authorizing EIT s (torture) at black sites. He signed off on drone strikes from and was council to the CIA for first 9 years of the war on terror. MICHAEL HAYDEN Director of the NSA (Natl. Security Agency) He ran the NSA from 1999 to He oversaw President Bush s warrantless surveillance program which gathered metadata on American's phone calls. JSOC Joint Special Operations Command They conduct special military operations worldwide, including SEAL team missions.

3 27. What began to happen in office parks outside the NSA? What is the NSA s budget? 28. What did reporter WILLIAM ARKIN and DANA PRIEST attempt to discover? 29. How long did it take Arkin to develop a catalogue of government and corporate entities at work in the world? What did they have to do to verify their information? 30. Are there hundreds of secret locations hiding in plain sight in office parks? 31. What are launched from these office park locations? 32. What companies take part in the operation? 33. How far below ground do some of the buildings go? 34. What is it like below ground? 35. If put in one place, what would its size be the equivalent of? 36. What did we not find in Iraq? 37. What agency was blamed for the failure? 38. What did the 9/11 Commission say needed to be created? 39. What did Don Rumsfeld (Sec. of Defense) think about the creation of a Director of National Intelligence? 40. Did the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) have the authority it needed? 41. As a response, what did the DNI do?

4 MORE KEY PLAYERS RICHARD CLARKE Counterterrorism Expert He was Clinton s chief counterterrorism advisor, but was denied cabinet level access under Bush, who re-assigned him to cyber security. Former member, Natl. Sec. Council. JOHN NEGROPONTE First Director of National Intelligence Head of the DNI (Department of National Intelligence) from 2005 to Delivered the daily brief to the President (formerly done by the CIA). THE JOURNALISTS WILLIAM ARKIN Journalist Served as the military analyst for the NY Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times and NBC News. He is a former U.S. Army Soldier. DANA PRIEST Journalist Now a 30 year reporter for The Washington Post. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for exposing the mistreatment of wounded vets at Walter Reed Hospital. She now reports on national intelligence issues. 42. Was there a threat against the inauguration of President Obama? Did they think about canceling it? 43. What was used to create safety during Obama s inauguration? 44. What did Obama say during the campaign about secrecy in America? What happened after he was read into the intelligence brief? 45. Under Obama did most of the programs created by COFER BLACK continue or did they come to an end? 46. What did he do to the growth of top secret America? 47. What is remarkable about the size of the new DHS (Dpt. of Homeland Security) headquarters? 48. What did they (DHS) fund throughout the country? 49. What are state and local police now using? 50. On December 25, 2009, what incident showed the security net could be evaded? 51. Why was the security apparatus unable to detect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (the underwear bomber)? 52. What caused his name not to come up when typed into the database? 53. What prevented the potential Times Sq. Bomber in 2009?

5 54. Was Osama bin Laden caught because of the bloated tens of thousands of analysts we had set up with giant agencies and sub-contractors, according to Richard Clarke? 55. How many people are now part of the top secret America apparatus? Does it rival the army? Does the American public know what it does? Note: According to Dana Priest, there are 1,900 private companies in the program, with 17,000 locations most, outside of public view. DIRECTIONS : FAILURE TO CONNECT THE DOTS: Read the article When Top Secret America Could Not Connect the Dots You may access it by scanning the QR code below or going to on your tablet. After you read the article, answer the question below: Outline below the 3 incidents cited in which the top secret America security apparatus was unable to detect the threats... THE SHOE BOMBER NYC SUBWAY THREAT CONNECTING THE DOTS THE CHRISTMAS DAY BOMBER THE TIMES SQUARE ATTACK Do you believe the programs now being conducted by the DHS (Dpt. of Homeland Security) and the DNS (Director of National Security) are keeping us safer or drowning in data? Explain...