History Quiz: Name the Greatest Robbery Committed in the Last 100 years

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Sat Mar-06-10 09:52 AM
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History Quiz: Name the Greatest Robbery Committed in the Last 100 years

The Untouchable Budget

Defense Department, Inc.

By SAUL LANDAU and NELSON P. VALDES

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. This is not a way of life…. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

--Dwight Eisenhower, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

President Obama called his $3.8-trillion budget a big step in restoring America’s economic health. Last year he promoted TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program to bail out the financial sector at a mere $700 billion. Anyone – even billionaire bankers -- can make mistakes that wreak ruin on the rest of us!

Obama also declared as “untouchable” the Pentagon budget of $1.5 trillion (including hidden costs in other government branches), which dwarfs the rescue package for the financial oligarchs. Both payouts, however, used the same logic: Congress taking from the have-nots and giving it to the have-mores. Indeed, the economic, political and military potentates depend on the federal budget to transfer taxpayer resources to them.

This evolving military-industrial complex, a partnership of interlocking government and corporate networks, has used public wealth to enrich itself. The manufacturing part of this complex rarely produces anything people live in, wear, or eat. Despite National Rifle Association claims, armaments do not meet civilian needs. In fact, there exists a dramatic gulf between a healthy economy and a social order based on military spending. During the very period (1998-2008) when the US economy’s share of global output dropped from 32 to 23%, the Defense budget doubled. (Loren Thompson, “QDR Can’t Solve Three Biggest Defense Challenges, Lexington Institute, January 28, 2010)

The Defense Department’s eschewal of economic reality finds its counterpart in its disinterest in accountability. The dramatic admission of this statement of priorities came from Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who admitted publicly that that DOD could not find $2.3 trillion. The money is still missing. (“The War on Waste: Defense Department Cannot Account for 25% of Funds - $2.3 Trillion, CBS Evening News, January 29, 2002)

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http://www.counterpunch.org/landau03052010.html

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.

Did you get it? Yes, the most fraudulent corrupt scheme ever foisted on humankind is the Pentagon budget. Since 2001, under the guise of defending the country - which the Defense Department has never done - the DOD has scammed from US taxpayers $5.1 trillion. Since its inception, it has never passed an audit and thus not accounted for the money that pours into its coffers.

Assume an auditor confronts the following entry item under "CONTRACTS DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY":

"Rolls-Royce Engine Services, Oakland, Calif. (N00019-09-D-0013); StandardAero (San Antonio), Inc., San Antonio, Texas (N00019-09-D-0014); and Wood Group Turbopower, LLC, Miami Lakes, Fla. (N00019-09-D-0012) are each being awarded modifications to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts to exercise options for depot-level repair for the T56 Series III engine. The award for Rolls-Royce Engine Services is $34,465,472; for StandardAero, Inc., $41,193,248; and for Wood Group Turbopower, LLC, $44,600,663. Depot-level repair of the T56 Series III engine modules is required to support fielded P-3 and derivative aircraft, as well as T56 powered C-130 and C-2 aircraft. The three major modules of the engine to be maintained and repaired under these options will be a maximum annual quantity of 160 power sections, 180 reduction gear assemblies, and 140 torquemeters. Depot-level repair of T56 Series III engine modules is required to support fielded P-3 and derivative aircraft, as well as T56-powered C-130 and C-2 aircraft…Efforts under these options are expected to be completed in February 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year."

You still awake? Shocked at $120 million for engine repair, maintenance and modification?

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http://www.zcommunications.org/defense-elephant-in-americas-living-room-by-saul-landau

President Obama's Defense (with other military allocations) is almost $1.5 trillion budget, the highest in world history. Try to think of how to spend $4,100 per second!

The 2009 Federal Budget Pie Chart shows that about 54 percent of the national budget goes to the Pentagon. The 15 percent piece of the Pentagon slice (with the X) represents how much the Pentagon's budget would need to be reduced to fully fund health care and education. Think about that for a moment. The portion of the Pentagon's piece just for Iraq, Afghanistan, and the so-called War-On-Terra, is more than the cost of fully funded health care and education for the entire country.