Security clearances held by 5 million Americans
Nearly five million people in the United States have some kind of government security clearance, having access to classified information.
Of the figure, 1.4 million people have access to information classed as "top secret," according to a January report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning are just two of the people having access to secret intelligence.
Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old man who worked as a technical assistant for the CIA and spent the past four years working for contractors for the National Security Agency (NSA), has recently leaked that the agency is collecting data on phone calls and Internet records of everyone including American citizens.
Revelations about the U.S. government’s massive surveillance program caused growing outrage among civil liberties advocates in the country.
Bradley Manning, former Army intelligence analyst, also leaked information about U.S. military activities. He was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents to the whistleblower website Wikileaks.
Manning’s court martial began last week. He faces a possible 154-year prison sentence for the leak as he is viewed by many in America as a hero for shedding lights on the darkest corners of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Most, but far from all, security clearances are held by government workers. They hold 2,757,33 "confidential/secret" clearances and 791,200 clearances designated as "top secret," according to USA Today.
Contractors claim 582,524 "confidential" clearances and 483,263 "top-secret" ones.
There is another general category of people who hold 167,925 "confidential/secret" clearances and 135,506 top-secret.
ARA/ARA
Nearly five million people in the United States have some kind of government security clearance, having access to classified information.
Of the figure, 1.4 million people have access to information classed as "top secret," according to a January report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning are just two of the people having access to secret intelligence.
Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old man who worked as a technical assistant for the CIA and spent the past four years working for contractors for the National Security Agency (NSA), has recently leaked that the agency is collecting data on phone calls and Internet records of everyone including American citizens.
Revelations about the U.S. government’s massive surveillance program caused growing outrage among civil liberties advocates in the country.
Bradley Manning, former Army intelligence analyst, also leaked information about U.S. military activities. He was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents to the whistleblower website Wikileaks.
Manning’s court martial began last week. He faces a possible 154-year prison sentence for the leak as he is viewed by many in America as a hero for shedding lights on the darkest corners of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Most, but far from all, security clearances are held by government workers. They hold 2,757,33 "confidential/secret" clearances and 791,200 clearances designated as "top secret," according to USA Today.
Contractors claim 582,524 "confidential" clearances and 483,263 "top-secret" ones.
There is another general category of people who hold 167,925 "confidential/secret" clearances and 135,506 top-secret.
ARA/ARA
