US Forces 'black' budget = 2nd biggest military on Earth

[FarCenter]

By Lewis Page 8th May 2009 09:13 GMT

There's controversy already in America regarding the first Obama administration detailed Defense budget plans, announced yesterday. Some are painting the plans as a cuts package, others disagree. What's clear is that the US military's top-secret (or "black") budget is now on the same level as the whole of UK defence spending - and the UK has the second biggest defence budget in the world.

According to veteran black-budget watcher and secret-plane journalist Bill Sweetman, editor of Defense Technology International, the planned black budget for fiscal year 2010 is just over $50bn. That's about £33bn at current rates, a bit less than the total UK defence budget - but only a bit. It wouldn't be inaccurate in money terms to say that one could rank the top few armed forces in the world thus:

1) Mainstream US armed forces $490bn-odd

2) UK armed forces $60bn

3) Chinese armed forces $58bn

4) French armed forces $54bn

5) "Black" US forces $50bn+

6) Japanese Self-Defence forces $44bn

<SNIP>


However you slice it, America's secret services alone are a fairly high-ranking world power in their own right - and nobody except them (and perhaps a few politicians in Washington) has a good handle on what they're doing.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/08/us_dod_black_budget/

[DS1]

1. Penny wise and a pound KICKASS!

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. Hey - The USA is THE terrorist nation on the globe - look how many conflicts they got going!

.
.
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How many does Russia have ongoing?

China?

India?

Iran?

North Korea?

Venezuela?

and so on . . The USA has them ALL outnumbered - fingers in MANY pies -

USA just can't seem to sit back and take a look at itself.

The World is waiting for the USA to stumble badly,

and when the bully stumbles,

the peasants will pounce.

EMPIRES FAIL, ALWAYS.

Read history

[Echo In Light]

3. Terror and aggression operations disguised as being 'retaliatory' take a lot of tax dollars

[ShortnFiery]

4. Perhaps it is worthwhile to review the horrific BLOWBACK of "Black Ops."

Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy

CONSPIRACY… BETRAYAL… BUSINESS AS USUAL.

http://www.amazon.com/Bushwhacked-Inside-Stories-True-Conspiracy/product-reviews/0971004218/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R14COKVUI2O2ZO

Controversial and provocative, "Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy" is a journey into the secret world of whistle-blowers and corporate-government conspirators. A compilation of Uri Dowbenko’s ground-breaking articles from the Alternative Media, "Bushwhacked" includes Investigations, Interviews and Secret Histories you won’t find anywhere else.

The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider

http://www.amazon.com/Conspirators-Secrets-Iran-Contra-Insider/dp/097100420X

"The Conspirators" reveals the hidden history of the United States during the Iran-Contra era. It's a source document on the frauds and corruption spawned by men under the pretense of patriotism. These are high-level criminals who publicly rationalized their conspiracies with the cover story of "fighting communism."

Many of the book's chapters contain completely unreleased material like:

* The National Programs Office (NPO) and Operation Sledgehammer

* Oliver North: The Money Laundering Drug Smuggling Patriot

* Do Nothing Janet Reno and Iran-Contra Suppression

* Classified Illegal Operations: Cordoba Harbor and Screw Worm

* The Don Austin-Denver HUD Fraud Case

* US Government Narcotics Smuggling & Illicit Weapons Sales

* The Chinese Connection: US Weapons Scams

* The Real Story of Operation Watchtower

* Bush Family Corporate, Real Estate, and Bank Frauds

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. The numbers in the article are not even close to right...

China is spending way more than that for starters

[Warren DeMontague]

6. That's so it can take on our actual military.

What good is spending that much money if you can't also create a worthy opponent? Where's the fun in that?

[Democracyinkind]

7. Gotta love empire.

Or study history.