The War on Waste 1

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VIEWED The War On Waste 1. Anti-Rape Condoms (PICTURE): Will Jagged Defense Department Cannot Account For 25% Of Funds — $2.3 Trillion Teeth Deter World Cup Sex Assaults? Rape- aXe Hopes So Font size Print E-mail Share 2. Jake and Vienna's Break-Up (PICTURES) Should Be No Surprise (CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Like this Story? Share it: declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to 3. Van der Sloot Boasts of Marriage Offers home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said. 4. McChrystal, Staff Disparage Team Obama 9 5. Chelsea Clinton's Wedding: The Inside Scoop tweets He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.

retweet "In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said. DISCUSSED 1. McChrystal Fighting for Job after Comments Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world (689 recent comments) changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on The Pentagon. waste seems to have been forgotten.

Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls LATEST NEWS for more than $48 billion in new defense spending." McChrystal Relieved of More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Duty; Petraeus Tapped Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot Obama Accepts Resignation account for 25 percent of what it spends. of Top Afghanistan General "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in over Comments in Magazine transactions," Rumsfeld admitted. Profile; Iraq General Petraeus

to Lead The Pentagon. (AP) $2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of

INTERACTIVE trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to David Petraeus to Take find out what happened to a mere $300 million. America On Guard Over Afghanistan War Find out what actions are being taken "We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said to protect our nation in the air, water Following McChrystal's Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service. and on land. Dismissal, Obama Picks

Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job General Known for Turning by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed Around Iraq War were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records. BP Removes Oil Well "The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor Cap after Gas Mishap asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery. More Oil Gushing into Gulf He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off. after Underwater Robot Bumps into Venting System, "They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they Sending Gas Rising through can't do the job." Vent The Pentagon's Inspector General "partially substantiated" several of Minnery's allegations but could not prove

officials tried "to manipulate the financial statements." CBS News on Facebook

Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the NEWS IN PICTURES "accounting games." He's still there, and although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.

"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year," he said.

Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, commanded the Navy's 2nd Fleet the first time Donald Rumsfeld served as Defense Secretary, in 1976.

In his opinion, "With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."

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