In fiscal 1999, the Department of Defense was “missing” $2.3 trillion dollars. To put that amount of money in perspective, it is approximately 3X what President-elect Obama is .

In fiscal 2000, the Department of Defense was “missing” $1.1 trillion, about 1.5X what President-elect Obama wants to invest in America.

So between October 1998 and September 2000, the Department of Defense was “missing” $3.3 trillion. Because the amount of money disappearing is so enormous, years ago we started a archive of articles on the “missing money” to try to keep up with the trillions sliding out of the federal accounts.

From 1997 to March 2001, the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) who served as the chief financial officer for the Department of Defense was William J. Lynn III. In that position, he was the chief financial officer for the Department of Defense and was the principal advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for all budgetary and fiscal matters. That means he was the person responsible to make sure no money went missing and that the Department of Defense published audited financial statements — which it failed to do in those years and every year since.

When Mr. Lynn left Defense in 2001, he joined DFI International and then in 2005 became the chief lobbyist for Raytheon. He was replaced at Defense by Dov Zakheim.

Today, President Elect Obama nominated William J. Lynn III as the Deputy Secretary of Defense. The press release said, “Lynn brings decades of experience and expertise in reforming government spending and making the tough choices necessary to ensure that American tax dollars are spent wisely.”

Obama also nominated Robert Hale to Lynn’s former position,  Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller).  From 1994 to 2001, Mr. Hale served as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller). That means that Hale, same as Lynn, was in charge of the money when all the money disappeared.

I guess the guys who got the last $3.3 trillion were pretty happy with Mr. Lynn and Mr. Hale and decided to bring them back.

Which brings me to the question I keep asking, “Where is the money and how do we get it back?“

37 Comments

  1. I have been thinking it would be better accounting wise if the state would retain larger amount of the taxes and take care of their need as health insurance, unemployment, business growth and so many other areas now in charge of the federal government. The fed should have the amount they need for defense and Transportation, commerce, trade and public land management.
    I believe micro economics would allow better control of resources and give more power to the states to develop their economy independently and nationally.
    We could have grop of states cooperating for example to develop a new transit rail road making easier to travel and reducing use of cars. Also those states that can produce solar energy could sell to other states near them.
    I think that a new model of business should could emerge based less on profit and more on saving and finding the more practical and frugal way to produce will actually create better paying jobs and in long term save resources.
    I see to much waste for sake of free enterprises yet no national plan to direct them or coordinate their efforts for maximum effectiveness and return.
    While the underlying idea could be cooperative and socially better it will not allow for large monopoly of resources for the sake of large profit at the expenses of the environment, job loss or
    waste. When we pay someone not to produce there is something inherently wrong with the system.
    We manipulate the market for the sake of the few yet it has dire consequences in other areas never intended.We have no free market where there is manipulation,lack of ethics and interest groups with an agenda.
    A last note for the banks, until we get rid of them people and the Fiat money system we will be slave of the compounding interest forever and never own anything.

  2. Dan:

    I believe that the likely use of the money is:

    1. Secret projects — including invisible weaponry not widely understood, including electromagnetic weaponry and weapons that can be delivered from satellites and space.

    2. To finance the New World Order and various factions, including the transfer of assets from sovereign governments to the NWO and to shift liabilities back into governent

    3. To fund the derivatives used to manipulate markets and to shift control of real assets to the NWO and shift the general population into ownership of paper assets and to ensure domination of financial systems by centralized institutions.

    4. Personal wealth of people involved in engineering 1-3 above, both knowingly and unknowingly

    5. To shift investment out of countries with aging populations and into countries with young populations

    6. To ensure that the NWO has sufficient control of the populations in the first world so that it will not lose control when various types of medical and energy technology are unsuppressed.

    7. To prototype various forms of population reduction.

    These things are never just one thing…

    Catherine

  3. Hi Catherine,
    I think you have the list done pretty well. We often see evil in these things and wonder what sinister plans are afoot for the human race.
    However, lets take a step back for a second and try the other side of the coin. The human race is a plague upon the planet; consuming without restraint, polluting without regard for their own safety. The governments are mostly secretive buffoons who couldn’t find their own um knees in the dark with both hands and a flashlight. The educational institutions are bent on self-delusion and herd-shaping. Perhaps the ‘sinister’ plans are really possible salvation of the planet Earth by destroying our economy to moderate our behavior. Too bad they didn’t think of a simple sales tax instead….
    We can’t know WHAT they are planning without opening records in government.
    I think that is the only hope we can have for the new president, who stated “and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

    Here’s to you, Catherine, and the good work you are doing. “Cheers!”

  4. Obama’s stimulus plan should also envision changing regulations & economic policies to have short-term & long-term effects on unemployment, middle-class and the market stability. Strengthening the middle class and creating more job opportunities should be the primary objective of the package, rather than handing the blank check to the Wall Street and failed big corporations.

  5. We’ve seen many instances of pump and dump in various sectors, Several pump and dump schemes in whole countries. I must admit I’m impressed that they managed to pump and dump the entire planet.

  6. The trillion dollar stimulus package contains some of the spending that is not necessary and we’ve got to look at the package in terms costs and benefits. If creating a $40k-$50k a year job costs taxpayers $200-$300K, then this does not make sense and such programs are not necessary. We’d be better off transferring that money directly to struggling homeowners and giving further larger tax breaks for laid off workers and the middle class. I think we need to concentrate on further empowering the middle class, rather than spending taxpayers money on unnecessary spendings such as opening/renovating museums and constructing water parks.

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