Missing Military-Industrial-Complex
Money
When Major General Smedley Butler made his case,"War is a Racket" he did not pull any punches. "The normal profits of a business
concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! That is another
matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit.
All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's get it." The business of military procurement has multiplied
since his fateful revelations. Not
satisfied with fair profits or feasible competition, the practices of the defense corporatists illustrate one aspect of waste,
graft and systemic bribery. William D. Hartung describes the consolidation and expanse of a select group of companies in the
paper, The Military-Industrial
Complex Revisited: Shifting Patterns of Military Contracting in the Post-9/11 Period
"Many of the same companies that
benefited from increased Pentagon and war spending were top contractors for other security related agencies. For example,
Lockheed Martin was not only the top contractor for the Pentagon, but it also ranked number one at the Department of Energy;
number eight at the Department of Homeland Security (Boeing was number one); number two at the State Department; and number
three at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Contracts let by these agencies were only a fraction of
the levels awarded by the Pentagon, but they were significant nonetheless. For example, the Department of Homeland Security
issued $13.4 billion in contracts in FY2008, NASA $15.9 billion, the State Department $5.5 billion, and the Department of
Energy $24.6 billion."
This dramatic growth in budgets is even more significant, when viewed
in the context of world expenditures of other counties. Leaving aside the relative merits of the dangers and risk of external
threats, the gigantic enterprise of fostering the biggest military apparatus in history has made select factions rich at the
expense of the many.
Jonathan Turley in Pentagon Plugs: New Study Finds Pentagon Has Hidden Trillions In Missing Money And Equipment,
references an example on how the overall avoidance of financial accountability, outright fraud and intentional concealment
operates. "A new report has detailed how
the military has cooked the books to hide trillions, that’s right trillions, in missing money and equipment. The military
calls them "plugs," a curious term for fraud. These are knowingly fake figures used to hide the fact that there
is no accurate record of the money.
The plugs are generally the work
of the office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon’s main accounting agency. Required to complete
an audit, the staff simply faked the numbers."
Reuter’s
reports on a Special Report: The Pentagon's doctored ledgers conceal epic waste. "Over the past 10 years,
the Defense Department has signed contracts for the provision of more than $3 trillion in goods and services. How much of
that money is wasted in overpayments to contractors, or was never spent and never remitted to the Treasury, is a mystery.
That's because of a massive backlog of "closeouts" - audits meant to ensure that a contract was fulfilled and the
money ended up in the right place."
Now trillions are sums that are unimaginable The Department
of the Treasury acknowledges that U.S. gold reserves (if you believe their figures) total $11,041,059,958.16 as of their Current Report: January 31, 2014.
An eleven billion dollars equivalent is a mere drop in the bucket
to the monies allocated to the military and homeland security. Taxpayers are regularly deceived about the costs. Congress is kept in the dark about black programs. And the war
racket keeps funneling and siphoning off unknown sums to accounts that only a super computer can track.
Corporatocracy:
How the Corporate Welfare State Divides and Conquers is a video by James Corbertt that provides an insightful analysis
which establishes a surreal account how the oligarchy operates. The financial shenanigans of corporatists contribute to the
interlocking directorates, which run the money pit that keeps the empire operating. A rational reform of a depraved money laundering arrangement is impossible without a fundamental
repudiation of the internationalist foreign policy doctrines that permeates the State Department. Funding advance technological
warfare platforms that are unheard of to even congressional oversight is profoundly unconstitutional.
When such practices
become routine, the economic incentives breed crooked abuses. The obligations for responsible public policy are methodically
destroyed, when transparency is eliminated.
The Washington Blog provides several useful sources that document
the extent of the problem in "$8.5 TRILLION
In Taxpayer Money Doled Out By Congress To The Pentagon Since 1996 … Has NEVER Been Accounted For" and sums up with a bleak assessment.
"The Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied
with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money
doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for.
That sum exceeds the value of China’s economic output last year."
Evidently,
the elites that benefit from bilking appropriations and the board members that steer the defense contractors want the con
to continue. For all the money directed towards maintaining the war machine, our actual security become less secure.
Banks laundry ill-gotten gain, as prevailing practice, in the normal course of business
because the arm merchants are protected players in the trade. The reprehensible circle that the dogs of war unleash the cash
flow from their illicit drug sales, through arms sales, allows for the smooth transfer of hidden blood money into number accounts.
Such an organized system of mutual payoffs greases the ever growing
industry of fear and destruction. All the missing money is buried in the unknown cashes of subterranean tyranny. Creating
false flag threats allows for imaginary scourges to be new enemies. Protection from such manufactured foes is the real business
of the military-industrial-complex.
So, when more details surface about
the lost and unaccounted military funding money, it is just part of the price of keeping you safe.
James
Hall – February 19, 2014
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