"Up until Collateral Murder we were a cause célèbre in the United States among various groups; actually we are still a cause célèbre, but it is in a smaller left-wing or libertarian right-wing community now.237 According to Reuters, across twenty-four countries we have the support of over three-quarters of the gen- eral population. Our support is worst in the United States, where we have the support of over 40 percent of the population, which is still pretty good considering what has been happening. As a result of embarrassing the US military and diplomatic class, we have had a counterattack. That counterattack is significant. This is a very significant power group that is not just at the top of the White House, it’s not just a few generals; rather, it is all the people con- nected to and profiting from that system. That’s about a third of the US population, all the way from Chelsea Clinton to someone in the gutters of San Antonio whose brother is deployed in Iraq. There are 900,000 people in the United States with top-secret security clear- ances at this moment. There are two and a half million that have classified security clearances.239 If we go back over the past twenty years and ask how many people had security clearances, maybe it is 15 million. If we then go and look at all their spouses and business partners and children we are looking at something like 30 percent of the population of the United States that is one degree removed from that ideological structure and that patronage system. It is quite diffi- cult in the United States to say something that is against that system." j. assange