“But Are We Any Safer” Redux

Yesterday I wrote a rather long piece about Homeland Security and the growth of domestic counter-terrorism organizations throughout the country. I had recently watched the excellent Frontline report “Top Secret America” on PBS and was hoping to make more people aware of it. At some point during the last 24 hours the post was mysteriously deleted. It has completely disappeared — when you Google the title “But are were any safer” the link comes up, but the page itself is empty “Not Found.”

I’m not going to lie to you, this feels a little weird. The Providence Daily Dose started in 2007 and this has never happened to any other post, ever. I guess I will find out if it was actually a government entity the next time I try to fly out of the country, but it has occurred to us that perhaps a tech-savvy malcontent could have zapped the post hoping we would all freak out and get all balled up in conspiracy theories and sound like idiots. It could be solar flares or a totally random glitch.

The problem is I have no copy of the original post and I don’t have the energy to recreate it.  Just take 53 minutes and watch “Top Secret America” which reflects two years of investigative reporting by Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post journalist Dana Priest. Then read yesterday’s Providence Journal article “Response demanded new kind of police force” and see if you share Rhode Island State Police Col. Steven G. O’Donnell’s enthusiasm for this increase in intelligence gathering and the massive, and hugely expensive, militarization of state and local police departments. For more on how extensive this is, go to the Washington Post interactive “Top Secret America” map where anyone in the country can locate the counter-terrorism organizations located in their neighborhood.

We are looking into it, and I have made a copy of this post.