Classified Spending On the Rise (Black Budget highest since 88)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50108-2003Aug26?language=printer

"Black," or classified, programs requested in President Bush's 2004 defense budget are at the highest level since 1988, according to a report prepared by the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The center concluded that classified spending next fiscal year will reach about $23.2 billion of the Pentagon's total request for procurement and research funding. When adjusted for inflation, that is the largest dollar figure since the peak reached during President Ronald Reagan's defense buildup 16 years ago. The amount in 1988 was $19.7 billion, or $26.7 billion if adjusted for inflation, according to the center.

"It's puzzling. It sets the mind to wondering where the money's going and what sort of politically controversial things the administration is doing because they're not telling anybody," said John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a research group in Alexandria that has been critical of the administration's defense priorities.

Pike said part of the surge in the classified budget probably can be explained by increases for the Central Intelligence Agency's covert action programs, which are central to the war on terrorism. Traditionally, Pike said, much of the funding for the CIA is hidden in Air Force weapons procurement accounts.

But unlike the 1980s, when it was widely known that the "black" budget was going to the development of stealth aircraft such as the B-2 bomber and F-117 fighter, the uses of the classified accounts today are far murkier, Pike said.

[Junkdrawer]

1. Do you think shadow governments are cheap?

And add to that the 2-4 TRILLION no one can account for….

[prolesunited]

2. That figure is VERY frightening!

I wonder how much of that is being funneled through the Carlyle group and other Bush cronies. Do you realize how much of our tax dollars are going into their hands!!!

Between oil deals, defense contracts, rebuilding Iraq, privatization of our armed forces, how much are these guys raking in, yet we have not money for medical care, education, housing, infrastructure improvements, ect.

Do you trust these people to be up to any good with this money? I wonder how far this will move the PNAC forward?
:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: