i just want to say that this reporting by priest and arkin, like the previous series is important. we really have moved toward a secret-police/everybody'sa--potential-informer type of society. to me the response to 9.11 shows that, as one might put it, we're still in the twentieth century, the era of "history" or the state. basic strategies of power have not been transformed. 'secrecy' or 'privacy' might be out-of-fashion in our zuckerbergish society; it is still the fundamental condition for the security state. that's why the wikileaks model is interesting, why it challenges the state to adapt or die, or would if the leaks got more and better.

meanwhile the obama administration shows no less enthusiasm for the whole machinery than did the bush administration. very few governments after a peaceful transition are going to dismantle to standing powers they inherit, one reason the state is a snowball.