• Nearly 2,000 private companies and 1,270 government agencies are involved in counter-terror work at 10,000 locations across the country
• Some 854,000 US citizens have the highest level of security clearance
• A fifth of the US government's anti-terror organisations have been created since the September 2001 attacks
• More than 250 security bodies have been created or restructured since 9/11
• More than 30 complexes with 17m sq ft of space (1.6m sq m) have been built for top-secret intelligence work in the Washington area since the attacks
• Various agencies publish so many reports that they are often ignored by officials

A State Department email has accused the Post of planning to make public "top secret" information about defense and intelligence contractors working for the US, despite an admission in the same email that the Post's information came from "open sources."

"On Monday July 19, the Washington Post plans to publish a website listing all agencies and contractors believed to conduct Top Secret work on behalf of the US Government," the email stated. "The website provides a graphic representation pinpointing the location of firms conducting Top Secret work, describing the type of work they perform, and identifying many facilities where such work is done."