Pentagon's war spending hard to track - watchdog

[wookie294]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department is unable to track how it spent tens of millions of dollars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the U.S. war on terrorism, Congress's top investigator said on Wednesday.

The department "doesn't have a system to be able to determine with any degree of reliability and specificity how we spent" tens of millions in war-related emergency funds set aside by Congress, Comptroller General David Walker told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee.

Walker heads the Government Accountability Office, Congress's nonpartisan audit and investigative arm. He disclosed the accounting gap as part of a broader indictment of Pentagon business practices.

Congress approved $25 billion in extra defense spending for fiscal 2005, which ends on Sept. 30. Lawmakers were moving to approve $81 billion more this week outside the normal budget process, including about $75 billion for war-related Defense Department operations.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=4&u=/nm/20050413/pl_nm/arms_usa_iraq_dc

[Moderator]

1. wookie294

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs. Please edit you post.
Thanks in advance.

[wookie294]

2. Sorry !!

So many rules, so little time! In the spirit of Fair Use, I have edited the posting. Thanks!

[Moderator]

4. thanks for the edit

:)

[kainah]

3. hard to track?

That's a bit of an understatement, is it not? The Pentagon has something like a trillion (perhaps "only" a billion, but I believe it's a trillion) dollars that cannot be accounted for over the last ten years or something. The GAO long ago declared the Pentagon to be unauditable.

[wookie294]

5. Yeah, it's ''BILLIONS'' wasted over ONE YEAR !!

The GAO said the Pentagon is "wasting billions of dollars a year because of ineffective management of its business operations." So, it's likely that hundreds of billions, if not trillions, have been wasted over the last 10 years on Empire and protecting U.S. companies abroad.

America has a military presence in 70 percent of the world's countries. That's INSANE.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Closer to three, count 'em, three TRILLION.

But it's no secret where the money is going.


Edit to add: $2.3T
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

[kainah]

7. thanks for the citation

so many numbers get tossed around, it's always difficult to feel confident citing them. And, of course, that also means few people feel confident challenging you. They've almost become meaningless but this one seems to me to be worth citing.

[Al-CIAda]

8. Cynthia McKinney's wants to know about the missing TRILLIONS...

Transcript of Representative Cynthia McKinney's Exchange with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, and Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Tina Jonas, March 11th, 2005 - (Includes video)
(transcript here)

CMK: Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
DR: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
RM: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers
TJ: Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Tina Jonas
DH: Chairman Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA)

25:20
CMK: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, I watched President Bush deliver a moving speech at the United Nations in September 2003, in which he mentioned the crisis of the sex trade. The President called for the punishment of those involved in this horrible business. But at the very moment of that speech, DynCorp was exposed for having been involved in the buying and selling of young women and children. While all of this was going on, DynCorp kept the Pentagon contract to administer the smallpox and anthrax vaccines, and is now working on a plague vaccine through the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program. Mr. Secretary, is it policy of the U.S. Government to reward companies that traffic in women and little girls?

That's my first question. My second question, Mr. Secretary: according to the Comptroller General of the United States, there are serious financial management problems at the Pentagon, to which Mr. Cooper alluded.

Fiscal Year 1999: $2.3 trillion missing.

Fiscal Year 2000, $1.1 trillion missing.

And DoD is the number one reason why the government can't balance its checkbook. The Pentagon has claimed year after year that the reason it can't account for the money is because its computers don't communicate with each other.

My second question, Mr. Secretary, is who has the contracts today, to make those systems communicate with each other? How long have they had those contracts, and how much have the taxpayers paid for them?

Finally Mr. Secretary, after the last Hearing, I thought that my office was promised a written response to my question regarding the four wargames on September 11th. I have not yet received that response, but would like for you to respond to the questions that I've put to you today. And then I do expect the written response to my previous question - hopefully by the end of the week.


http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/031505_mckinney_transcript.shtml

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Count 'em three....No, wait, count 'em four....

No, wait....


:patriot:

[chlamor]

10. Dyncorp

Accountants you can count on.

A wholly owned subsidiary of the drug-military-money laundering complex

[Daphne08]

11. NOT a particularly good time for the average American taxpayer

to read this crap!

[chlamor]

12. No more tax dollars for war

No More Tax Dollars to War!
Protest on Tax Day, Friday, April 15, 2005
Activities are on April 15, unless otherwise noted

If your group is having a tax day event protesting the military use of U.S. tax dollars and would like it listed, please email the NWTRCC office at [e-mail]. Call or email time and place updates too. If there is no contact information for an event you wish to attend, contact the NWTRCC office at 800-269-7464 or by email. Return to NWTRCC homepage

Arizona

Tucson — Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Local Chapter. [e-mail]. Leafletting at the Sun Station Post Office.

California

Berkeley — Northern California War Tax Resistance. [phone] or [e-mail] or http://www.nowartax.org. People's Life Fund Granting Ceremony  and Dessert Potluck presenting redirection grants to 12 community organizations. 2220 Sacramento St. (Near No. Bkly. BART). Thursday, April 14, 7-9 pm.

<snip>

New Hampshire

Manchester — Leafletting and asking folks to join us in not paying federal income taxes. Main Post Office, 955 Coffs Falls Rd. 11 am to midnight. [e-mail]

Portsmouth — Demonstrators dressed as members of the Bush Administration will be holding signs reading “We found the weapons of mass destruction — they're in the President’s budget!” and passing out flyers, 9 am to 5 pm, main post office, Seacoast Peace Response, Jamilla El-Shafei, [e-mail]

New Mexico

Albuquerque — Albuquerque War Tax Alternative Fund. [phone]. Penny poll and leafleting at weekly anti-war vigil in front of bookstore at the University of NM and leafleting at the main post office. 11 am - 1 pm.

Silver City — Progressive Forum of SW New Mexico. [e-mail]. Teach-in at town park about how the Iraq war is funded.

New York

Ithaca — Ithaca War Tax Resisters. [e-mail]. Vigil at the post office.

New York City — NYC War Resisters League ([e-mail], 718-768-7306) and NYC War Tax Resistance. Leafletting, vigiling, and other actions at Manhattan IRS office (110 W. 44th Street, just west of Sixth Ave.) from noon to 2 pm.

White Plains — NoWar Westchester, [e-mail]. Share coffee with last minute tax filers, leaflet and discuss how 48% of our federal income taxes pay for past, present, and future wars. 5 pm to closing.

http://www.nwtrcc.org/taxday2005.htm

[cap]

13. they do... it just was bypassed

people deliberately refused to use normal GAO accounting. It is illegal to do what they have done. People are supposed to go to jail for this...


Well, Ken Lay hasnt been tried yet, either.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Where's the outrage? nt

[cap]

15. the people who've been outraged have outrage fatigue

:) and the folks who believe anything keep believin'