Experts critical of secret defense budgeting system

[NVMojo]

WASHINGTON -- Congress could avoid controversy involving billions of dollars in secret defense spending by shedding at least a little more light on classified, or "black," budgets, experts said Tuesday.

The secrecy leads frequently to questions, as it has this week when it was reported that a friend and campaign contributor to Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., landed classified contracts with help from the lawmaker.
One analyst who has campaigned for more openness said tighter rules might have saved Gibbons from criticism.

"It should not be permissible to receive lobbying funds from black budget recipients. That would single-handedly eliminate the questions in the Gibbons case," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

The federal government is expected to spend more than $30 billion this fiscal year on secret defense and intelligence programs, many labeled by code words and known only to select lawmakers and staffers.

Gibbons used his position to help the Reno software firm owned by Warren Trepp score millions of dollars in contracts, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

more...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Nov-02-Thu-2006/news/10580655.html

[Supersedeas]

1. so, select Staffers have access to information that Taxpayers don't???

[TexasLawyer]

2. "$30 billion this fiscal year on secret defense and intelligence programs"

ooooh, that's a lot of kick-backs!

[gratuitous]

3. Well, $30 billion here, $30 billion there

Pretty soon, you're talking about some real money.

This black budget nonsense ought to be made just plain illegal, except under very specific circumstances requiring a showing of a high level of need for secrecy. My gut feeling is that a lot of embarrassing, questionable, or potentially illegal funding just gets swept behind the black budget curtain without any review or oversight at all.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. It has been said...

That if you are a General, especially an Air Farce General, and you don't control a black budget in your shop? Well, you ain't shit. So they go looking for a "rabbi" in Congress to cut them a few billion and often succeed.

It might be noted that many of these black budget operations are said to be dry holes. The concept is unsuccessful and the program yields little, if any, usable technology for down the road.

Think: unaccountable defense contractor welfare.

[cosmicdot]

5. knr