The Washington Post has published a long-awaited -- and controversial -- investigation that details the vast patchwork of government contractors and intelligence operation that were spawned in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Post uncovered an operation "so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."

Some of the findings from The Washington Post:

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.

Part of this operation is in Texas.

Check out the interactive map of top secret government locations in the US and check out the full story and all the interactive components here

Also click here to see reaction from bloggers and the intelligence community.

Trent Seibert can be reached at 832-316-4994 or at trent@texaswatchdog.org.