US Black programs 2004., page 1

Ghost,
Thats a nice omlette you've made, but lets separate some of the ingredients:

1. Weapons Programs: Certainly. Goes without saying. Some new weapon systems are being designed and tested. HOWEVER, the majority of funds being spent on black weapons projects are not on new systems, rather, it is for upgrades and enhancements of existing systems. It can be argued that the majority of our most important non-nuclear weapon systems have been used operationally in the last 10 years. This means that our adversaries have had ample opportunities ot collect intel on our stuff and possibly even exploit recovered systems that were either combat losses or duds. In order to maintain peak combat effectiveness, black weapons projects are looking into newer and better ways to employ, deliver and utilize these systems. There are a small number of "gee whiz" systems in development, but they are always considered "high risk" and usually take at least 10-15 years to deploy operationally, if successful at all. I would venture a guess and say that in the last 20 years, 20-50% of a black budget weapons money spend went to weapons that never made it beyond "proof of concept" phase.

2. Intelligence Agencies and Activities: Its no big secret that our Intel community likes to keep its budget a secret. And its not for the reasons you think. A major chunk of those budgets are re-distributed to civial contractors performing work for the Intel community. Now, this is also no big secret. But, if our enemies knew where every dollar was being spent and by who, they might be able to more effectively spy on us. Why waste time trying to spy on CIA headquarters or Ft. Meade when you can just go over to the local DoD contractor and get the same product? The reason the budget is classified is not so they can hide how much is being spent on what, but to hide who is spending the money and where it is being spent. And believe me, don't think for a minute that the government doesn't keep an eye on that money. There are thousands and thousands of DoD and Intell community auditors running around every day of the year counting all the beans.

3. Covert Special Operations: Believe it or not, this is not a very expensive line item. At least for the Intel community. As a rule, most of this money comes from the CIA's Operations Department, which is part of the overall CIA budget.

There are no other US organizations conducting covert operations overseas, unless you factor in the DoD, which has a readily-accessable budget. Some money is always budgeted for SpecOps overseas, and it is usually referred to in the budget with some innocuous project name, like "Project Doorknob" or something like that. Alot of it is related to counter-insurgency or counter-drug activities in countries friendly to the US where the US military is an invited "guest".

4. Bribes of Foreign Officials: While this practice may take place, I am willing to bet it is usually for low dollar amounts for low-level officials. Probably comes from the CIA Ops Dept. as well. Payoffs of cabinet level foreign officials probably requires a Presidential Order and funds would be allocated from outside established organizational budgets. Usually, we are bribing a low-level official to give us data regarding the higher-level guys, or bribing them to allow us access to sensitive offices or installations, where we can emply of superior eavesdropping technology. Don't believe that the CIA is paying off prime ministers and kings all over the world, however. Those days are gone, for the most part.

5. Counterintelligence Activites: Within the US, this is the balliwick of the FBI exclusively. Their budget is Unclassified. The NSA and CIA have their own CI departments, but those people are there mostly to keep their own houses clean. Department of Homeland Security budget is also Unclassified, I believe.

Black budget money is being spent of alot of cool things, but you (like most folks) are just guessing at what is really going on. Thats good. It means our security system is effective and working.