Inside The Pentagon's $56 Billion Secret 'Black Budget'

Source - Wired Danger Room

The Pentagon dropped its $533 billion budget this week.  Some line items get a thorough public debate - like stealth jet engines and soldier health care.  Others have opaque names like “RETRACT MAPLE,” and are totally hush-hush. Welcome to the Defense Department’s classified, or black, budget.  It appears to be about $56 billion, the same as last year, less some inflation.

This may only be the tip of an iceberg of secret funds,  but we’d like your assistance in mapping out that icy tip.  So, with help from the Center for New American Security’s Travis Sharp, we’ve put together this spreadsheet.  Feel free to add, subtract and edit it — kind of like a classified cash Wiki.

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Comments

[paul krugman's raging ulcer]

I do have to say that the DoD only has a "$533 billion budget" if you don't count its spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Total military spending is much higher.

[S. Gompers]

The secret funds are not in the budget, that is off the book money.