Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Guardians of U.S. government secrets are not part of some small circle of chosen officials. Rather, they are part of a very large one.
Individuals in possession of a security clearance from Washington now total more than 4.8 million, a new high, according to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Last year, when the government for the first time officially reported the number of security-cleared personnel, the figure given for the prior year was 4.2 million. It turns out, though, that number was off. The correct total for 2010 was 4.7 million.
Still, that means the number of clearances increased in 2011 by about 3% to 4.86 million.
The total clearance figure is composed of government employees and contractors at all clearance levels (“confidential,” “secret,” and “top secret”), according to Steven Aftergood at Secrecy News.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Security-Cleared Population Tops 4.8 Million (by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News)
2011 Report on Security Clearance Determinations (Office of the Director of National Intelligence)
More than 4 Million Americans Have Access to Classified Information, Including 1 Million Contractors (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Comments