In the book she co-wrote with William M. Arkin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter argues that the federal government's efforts to protect America after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led to the creation of multiple security programs that now employ hundreds of thousands of people with top secret security clearance. Ms. Priest says that this hidden bureaucracy is too vast and dangerous and needs to be exposed. She discussed her book with former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith.