Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State

A little harsh in its blanket condemnation of everyone with a security clearance, and at times a bit factually inaccurate, but a fairly useful overview of the leviathan that is the modern military-industrial-intelligence complex. No getting around it; it's too big to handle and far larger than it need be. The threats we face are NOT existential.

Documents the gross post 9/11 build-up of the American intelligence sector. Topics that stand out are the unplannedness of the whole ("information if useless if you can't make connections"), the general waste of resouces, the disregard for privacy and absence of rules of what information and on whom can be gathered, the revolving doors/corruption between the official security sector and private contractors, all the way from top management and down, and the failure to secure the gathered data properly.

Old news now. Useful as background.