Top Secret America is a good if somewhat depressing read on all of this: http://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-America-American-Security/dp/0316182214/ref=sr_1_1?ie

Top Secret America is a good if somewhat depressing read on all of this: http://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-America-American-Security/dp/0316182214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340159699&sr=8-1&keywords=Top+secret+America http://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-America-American-Security/d... With compartmentization and the short terms of congress people (2 years and then there could be a change, worse if the party in control switches) nobody knows what our top secret money is spent on. It's so bad that we ask the people we give the money to if what they are doing is worth while because nobody knows and nobody wants to be the guy that cut the budget of x y ad z and let the terrorists attack again. Think on the order of a half trillion dollars that they can kind of account for (it's black, could be more, probably not tons less) that we have no idea what it actually does. Funny thing, NSA might not know and probably doesn't have an easy way to find out. This is an artistic response in that it doesn't make them sound like idiots for not knowing. there is just a staggering amount of communication going on, even if tried really hard to follow the rules try would still screw up.