Authors@Google: Dana Priest - Top Secret America

Dana Priest (with William Arkin) has written an expose of Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State, the hidden part of our government created by the Bush/Cheney cabal in response to the 9/11 event.

Authors@Google: Dana Priest

Dana Priest visits Google's San Francisco office to present her book 'Top Secret America'. This event took place on September 15, 2011, as part of the Authors@Google series.

The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere. The result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe may be putting us in greater danger. In TOP SECRET AMERICA, award-winning reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin uncover the enormous size, shape, mission, and consequences of this invisible universe of over 1,300 government facilities in every state in America; nearly 2,000 outside companies used as contractors; and more than 850,000 people granted "Top Secret" security clearance.

A landmark exposé of a new, secret "Fourth Branch" of American government, TOP SECRET AMERICA is a tour de force of investigative reporting-and a book sure to spark national and international alarm.

The Nation at The New School: Ten Years After 9.11

There has been a lot of noise around the ten-year mark of the 9/11 attacks, and this conversation among writers from The Nation addresses many of the concerns that still linger for those who oppose living in a state of fear that allows the dismantling of our civil rights and individual freedoms.





The Nation at The New School - Ten Years After 9.11: How Has the United States Changed?

"At times of crisis, the most patriotic act of all is the unyielding defense of civil liberties and the right to dissent," wrote celebrated historian Eric Foner days after the 9/11 attacks. As national security became an obsession in Washington and the mainstream media enlisted in the Bush administration's war, the need for an independent, critical press seemed more urgent than ever. The enduring concerns of The Nation took on a new relevance. Ten years later, the events of 9/11 continue to reverberate, with the killing of Osama bin Laden and the Obama administration's ongoing pursuit of the Bush-era national security agenda. In this context, leading Nation writers and thinkers engage in a conversation about what has changed in the United States since September 11, 2001.

THE NEW SCHOOL



Key questions to be discussed include: Are we more secure? How can we as a country strike the right balance between security and liberty? How has the marketing of fear reshaped our politics, society, and culture? How should we rethink the concept of the War on Terror? How can we end the war in Afghanistan and devise a diplomatic and political solution to the conflict? How can we dismantle a security apparatus that too often invokes state secrecy? Do U.S. history—and other countries' histories—offer useful guideposts? If we accept, as The Nation has argued, that the most effective way to halt global terrorism involves cooperation with the global community, what frameworks do we envision and how can they be developed? What can we, as a nation, do to prevent another 9/11?

Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy



Featuring Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation; Melissa Harris-Perry, Professor of Political Science at Tulane University; Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University; and Christopher Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation. Moderated by John Nichols, Washington correspondent, The Nation. Co-sponsored by the Leonard and Louise Riggio Writing and Democracy Initiative at The New School.

Location: Tishman Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall.September 8, 2011 7:00 p.m.

TED Talks - Eve Ensler: Security and Insecurity

TED Talks presents an interesting discussion about "security" from Eve Ensler.

Playwright Eve Ensler explores our modern craving for security -- and why it makes us less secure. Listen for inspiring, heartbreaking stories of women making change.

Inspired by a few intimate conversations with friends about -- gasp! -- their vaginas, Eve Ensler created the Obie Award-winning solo piece Vagina Monologues. In this convention-breaking play, she recounts tender, funny, gripping and horrifying stories women have told her about their bodies, their sexual experiences, and yes, their hoo-haas. Since its first staging in 1996 in New York, the play has been translated into more than 45 languages, and performed in more than 120 countries.

Vagina Monologues' success helped Ensler to create V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women and girls, which has so far raised (and donated) more than $60 million for campaigns that raise awareness and take direct action toward preventing violence and protecting abused women (by building safe houses, for example). Ensler has also drawn praise for The Good Body, a play that cuts to women's obsession with their appearance, and her book Insecure at Last, a scathing look at the measures being taken in the name of safety.

Tags: TED Talks, Eve Ensler, Security, Insecurity, women, culture, security, strength, violence