As law enforcement agencies take advan­tage of advanced technologies, the opportuni­ties for using data from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to help with investigations increases greatly.

People are outraged that the Obama administration used its most powerful spy agencies to create a secret national surveillance grid that completely profiles the communications and movements of every person in the country.

The drones are the latest example of the State Department’s efforts to take over functions in Iraq that the military used to perform. Some 5,000 private security contractors now protect the embassy’s 11,000-person staff, for example, and typically drive around in heavily armored military vehicles.