The greatest robbery of the last 100 years–committed by the Pentagon!

[Echo In Light]

There was a time when the astounding fraudulence of military contracting was common knowledge, thanks to some hard-hitting mainstream exposés of the outrageous padding by US defense contractors. Back then –this would be the Eighties– people generally knew that their tax dollars were being squandered on, say, toilet seats that somehow cost around $200 @, and other mundane items that might as well have been made out of gold.

So what made everyone –that is, the media, and, therefore, the people–
suddenly forget all that, so that the DoD is still routinely charging several
hundred dollars for a toilet seat, and doing much worse besides, to the tune
of well over $5 trillion since 2001 (as Saul Landau points out here)?

What made everyone forget all that was the Gulf War of 1991. That propaganda
masterpiece was, among other things, a vast sales job for the DoD itself, wiping
all those scandals clean out of the public mind. Suddenly that bloated and corrupt bureaucracy could do no wrong; and so its fraudulence, which had been covered by the New York Times and CBS, is now a matter handled, if at all, out in the blogosphere (in this case, by www.zcommunications.org).

So, for this grotesque situation, we can thank George Bush the Elder and his
merry men, including Dick Cheney (Secretary of Defense back then), James
Baker, Colin Powell and other malefactors of great influence.

MCM

Defense Elephant in America’s Living Room
By Saul Landau

History quiz: Name the greatest robbery committed in the last 100 years.

A: Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme
B: Nazi theft of art treasures from conquered nations
C. Diamonds stolen from Africa by Belgians
D. The Pentagon budget.

This is not a tricky multiple choice question where all the answers could be correct. Only one stands out as the criminal conspiracy of the century, an ongoing fraud perpetrated by tens of thousands of beneficiaries.

Read more.

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2010/03/the-greatest-robbery-of-the-last-100-years-committed-by-the-pentagon/

[Toots]

1. In my opinion the greatest heist ever and completely out in the open was

over eight billion dollars in American hundred dollar bills, shrink wrapped and palletized, loaded on big Cargo jets and sent off to Iraq Never to be seen again It is one thing to overcharge the government, but quite another indeed to just walk off with billions in cold hard cash..

[Poll_Blind]

12. You got that fucking right, Toots. I'd almost forgotten about that, too. n/t

PB

[Golden Raisin]

18. I thought it was $12 billion?

That bizarre and frightening episode, worthy of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone", and the fact that it has basically completely been swept under the rug, suppressed, ignored and forgotten, still blows my mind.

[Subdivisions]

25. delete. wrong place. n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

51. There was that matter of $2.3T missing from the Pentagon budget.

And then there was the $9T in unaccounted for off-balance sheet transactions at the Fed.


America has been mugged more than an old lady in Central Park at 2 a.m.

[Bosso 63]

2. Dwight Eisenhower said

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children".

[laughingliberal]

37. Have we no one, today, with the courage to stand up and say this?

:cry:

And the last President we had who could be this honest with us was a Republican??? How did we get here?

[Echo In Light]

38. Brainwashing, & consumer culture conditioning = de-politicization

[Echo In Light]

3. .

[BeFree]

4. I hear an Echo...

...it keeps telling the truth no matter which way I turn me head.

Thanks....

[Echo In Light]

36. .

:hi:

[avaistheone1]

5. Yes,

The Pentagon and military budgets are completely out of control and are taking are country into bankruptcy and third-world status. This administration continues to spend at historic levels exacerbating the problem.

[Mari333]

6. knr

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. And how about the 3 Trillion that was going to be investigated just prior to 9/11

and the Pentagon was hit where the accounting offices were?

McKinney questioning Rumsfeld about the missing trillions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eootfzAhAoU

[Echo In Light]

8. Hmmm....

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. Yes, Absolutely. Great Poster!

[SDuderstadt]

24. You realize the "trillions" aren't missing, right?

Rumsfeld's remarks were delivered in a publicly reported meeting and dealt with outdated accounting systems that couldn't track transactions properly. This wasn't a crime that needed to be "investigated", it was a process issue that needed to be addressed. Do you actually believe if $2.3T was really "missing", the SecDef would announce it???

This is just more embarrassing "9/11 was an inside job" bullshit.

[blm]

32. That's how they roll.....there are almost always 'fires' or accidents for files when Bushes are

involved.

Even SEC and National Guard files seem to go missing.

[MrScorpio]

9. I've worked in the Pentagon for 7 1/2 years

I knew that the Pentagon budget was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme 20 years ago.

[G_j]

10. Cynthia McKinney's Exchange with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3552883

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

Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld in House Hearing on FY06 Dept. of Defense Budget
Chairman Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and witnesses Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and JCS Chairman General Richard Myers hold a House Hearing on the FY 2006 Budget for the Department of Defense and Military Services.

3/11/2005: WASHINGTON, DC: 2 hr. 5 min.

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.

<snip>

[Echo In Light]

13. Thanks for including this

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. Thanks for posting the transcript. I posted the video in my previous post.

[G_j]

17. I have to wonder

if this is a factor in the vicious attacks on McKinney's character.
She was also the FIRST to call for Bush's impeachment.
Yet, the mere mention of her name brings hateful attacks.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

19. After this exchange, it seems she was the Congressperson

with the biggest target on their back. IMHO, Cynthia has more guts than every single member of the Senate and House.

[Echo In Light]

20. Some of the more belligerent name-callers here hate her every bit as much as Nader, or "twoofers"

I've never read a thread re McKinney that wasn't replete w/pitch black venom-spew from such crusaders

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

23. I agree.

It's funny, when I came to DU over 5 years ago,it seemed a kinder, gentler place and every year it has become more and more belligerent with keyboard bullies.

[GreenPartyVoter]

42. So true

[Greyhound]

35. Don't worry about all that nonsense, we're moving forward and all is right. n/t

[unhappycamper]

11. Yup, I've been following the money for a few years now.

We have the best most expensive military toys money can buy.

$355 million dollar F-22 fighters.

$239 million dollar F-35s fighters.

$218 million dollar C-17s cargo aircraft.

$70 million dollar MV-22 Ospreys.

$5+ billion dollar destroyers.

$466 thousand dollar NLOS rockets.

$6 billion dollar submarines.

$11.5 billion dollar aircraft carriers.

And my POS congresscritter Steve Lynch loves the MIC. And military budgets.

[Mari333]

31. great post

[L0oniX]

16. Ok y'all still go on and support the fucking military and act like it ain't costing us shit.

We are being taken over not only by the banksters but also the fucking military. The military is going to bankrupt our country and reduce civilian lives to poverty. I am for striving for peace at all costs. War is only for defending our country from other "countries" who attack us on our soil. El Kabong is a renegade criminal gang ...not a fucking country! But go ahead and keep attacking me for making my intense hatred for the military known ...I don't give a fuck what you think about me.

[kenny blankenship]

21. Can't wait 'til the insurance goons have the same symbiotic relationship w/ govt as mil contractors

One side scares you to death, the other side profits when you do.

[G_j]

22. look on the bright side

the wars have offered an excellent opportunity to advance treatments of severe head and brain injuries!

:sarcasm:

[Subdivisions]

26. $2.3 Trillion Dollars Missing

(CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.

He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.

"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.

Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.

Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending."

More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.

"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.

...snip...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

[SDuderstadt]

29. "Cannot account for 25 percent of what it...

spends".

The keyword there, of course, is "spends". Simple question. If the Pentagon "spent" it, in what sense is it "missing"?

This is just more evidence that the "9/11 was an inside job" crowd harnesses words like "missing" to imply transactions that can't be tracked properly because of antiquated accounting systems has been "stolen".

Does anyone here really think that $2.3T was really "stolen" and 9/11 was staged to cover it up?

[Octafish]

61. Who is the ''9/11 was an inside job crowd''? DUers?

I find it more interesting to point out the "always defending the military industrial complex" crowd.

[troubledamerican]

40. Worth repeating: $2.3 Trillion missing on eve of Sept 11 2001

announces Rumsfeld.

On a Monday night.

Not the usual Friday news dump.

On the night before MIHOP.

[SDuderstadt]

41. It wasn't "missing" but...

if it was "missing" and you wanted to cover it up, why on earth would you announce it?

Do you guys actually think before you parrot these goofy conspiracy theories?

[Blue_Tires]

27. funny how the deficit hawks never seem to remember this...

[Echo In Light]

28. .

[Echo In Light]

30. .

[Greyhound]

33. Stealing the product of an entire nation to create billionaires and the Pentagon's

blatant theft, accounts for most of the missing prosperity.

Wall Street is terrible, but they are rank amateurs compared to the military contractors and their blood-sucking lapdogs.

[Echo In Light]

34. Careful now ...

[L0oniX]

39. Deleted message

Descent is terrorism therefore I can not speak of how much I hate our fucking military without upsetting the troop supporter cheer leaders.

Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. - Henry Kissinger

You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.- Abbie Hoffman

Blind obedience to authority is the enemy of the truth. - Albert Einstein

That worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor . . . This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism–how passionately I hate them! – Albert Einstein

[Greyhound]

43. Deleted message

I like that, nice.:thumbsup:

Perhaps ironically it was a two-star, two-time MoH recipient that laid out the ideal American military force. http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf">War is a Racket, by Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler

[L0oniX]

50. Ignored

Much thanks for that ---> http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf I'm sure that Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler has to say will be ignored by most people.

[G_j]

45. ==

powerful quotes

I had hoped that after Vietnam people would really think twice about putting on a uniform to serve people who will use you, and lie to you about their true objectives. That Kissinger quote really captures that.

It's time to end the charade of military being the primary 'problem solver' in the world.
It's time to leave childish things behind.


"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. "
Martin Luther King, Jr.

[SDuderstadt]

53. I'm willing to bet the Kissinger "quote" is...

fabricated.

[Greyhound]

63. Of course you would.

:rofl:
:kick:

[Ohio Joe]

44. The way it worked then

My brother was an auditor for the Dept. of Defense back in the 80's through the 90's. To start, labeling it as the Pentagon budget being the problem is incorrect, it is not the budget, it is how they do business. It is not the Pentagon that profits but rather the contractors they do business with. There are two main reasons it is so easy to rip off the government:

1 - What the auditors get to balance - Even for "small" projects they get reams of paper with part numbers (no names) and cost, one entry for every individual part. These would have to be cross referenced with what the actual part was. All of this then summed up to the various different level to what the parts made up (be it a product or a service). Very time consuming and labor intensive, also very easy to miss something since you were on a schedule. Which leads to...

2 - Not anywhere near enough auditors - Auditors were shuffled from place to place, given to many projects to review and not enough time to review them.

One additional thing the government does very wrong is when they do catch someone... They do not prosecute them and get all of the money back, instead they deal with them. They make a deal and take a refund for a small percentage and a promise not to do it again... Regardless of how many times it happens.

Bottom line - It is viewed as a necessary evil. Big military keeps America big and bad, the money pumped into the military keeps a lot of money flowing into the economy. That said, I'm not endorsing the thought, I am simply reporting what the mind set was at the time.

[leftstreet]

46. K&R

[NecklyTyler]

47. For defense contractors, the gravy train just keeps on rolling

[Echo In Light]

48. Grim indeed

[G_j]

49. indeed

:-(

[L0oniX]

52. Kick

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

54. The Pentagon is America's very own, untouchable, Sacred Cow.

Despite it's incompetence, it's fraudulent practices, and downright corruption, the congress still shovels our money into it at the first wave of the flag or it's erection of a new bogeyman.

[arcadian]

56. It's disgusting to see the militaristic state the US has become.

My dad was a veteran of WWII he flew in the Navy. You would have never known it by talking to him. the only thing he kept was a seaman's radioman patch in the top drawer of his dresser. People didn't come up to him and give these adoring platitudes thanking him for his service, he didn't have Navy stickers all over his car, he didn't go to Veteran's day events or anything like that. Compare that to DU where you can't make a post about War or the military without somebody bragging about their service and 20 people then thanking them for that service.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

58. I'm a vet and I'm always perplexed when I hear "Thank you for your service."

I spent 4 long, seemingly eternal, years doing absolutely nothing of benefit to anyone but the MIC and their politician stooges.

[arcadian]

55. They needed something to reboot the public's mind after Vietnam

Gulf I was that reboot. I remember there were ticker tape parades for the returning troops after the Gulf War media war and that war was mostly fought in the media.

[dmr]

57. Ever notice that when the Fed budget is discussed

you rarely ever see the defense budget included.

What you do see - always - are entitlements and how the entitlements are killing the budget.

Every time I see this my head wants to explode.

[Echo In Light]

59. Yep

[PreacherCasey]

60. This robbery can not and will not go on forever. I believe its end will come in the form of the

destruction of the dollar, and in turn the economy as a whole, with no industry to back it up. There will, however, be plenty of GOON SQUAD careers available to keep the people in line. Then we can start giving America "back to nature" as the high priest of the UN Environmental Program, Maurice Strong has been advocating for more than 20 years. Of course, he will keep his billions made from oil and derivatives.

Oh wait, this is already happening: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/To-save-itself-Detroit-plans-to-shrink/articleshow/5665326.cms. Must be a coincidence.:eyes:

The coming age of austerity is for US, not the big boys. Same story all throughout history.

[Greyhound]

64. That's when we'll learn the value of bankrupting ourselves to build

this military juggernaut.

[Echo In Light]

62. Bump