From: tjlodge50@PROTECTED I don't know if anyone remembers the bad old days when there were two kinds of supplemental appropriations being gamed to keep the actual cost of the illegal Iraq War and the War on Terra hidden so the public would not realize how destructive war is to us as a nation. For several years after the 2003 invasion, there was the annual military offense budget, but in between times there would be "supplemental" appropriations. And there were also appropriations for war laundered through completely unrelated agencies, like the Department of Agriculture.
Well, for those of you who may have been worrying all these years at discovering that the Department of War in the State of Austerity may not have been truthful, not to worry. It's now official: federal agencies can lie in their accounting statements to protect the citizenry from the ugly truth about imperialism, war profiteering, mass murder bordering on genocide, and much, much more.
I'd look for the Department of War's budget to drop nearly to zero soon, to just enough to cover the Secretary of War and his immediate entourage, and everything else to be laundered through Health and Human Services.
I'm joking (somewhat: there actually were massive appropriations laundered thru Agriculture and other departments for the DoD), but as you can see below, Sam isn't.
Remember, it's for your own good.
----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@PROTECTED> To: "tjlodge50@PROTECTED" <tjlodge50@PROTECTED> Sent: Tuesday, October 9, 2018, 9:30:10 AM EDT Subject: Secrecy News -- 10/09/18
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From the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2018, Issue No. 60
October 9, 2018Secrecy News Blog: https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/** ACCOUNTING BOARD OKAYS DECEPTIVE BUDGET PRACTICES
** THE BELLS OF BALANGIGA, AND MORE FROM CRS
ACCOUNTING BOARD OKAYS DECEPTIVE BUDGET PRACTICES
Government agencies may remove or omit budget information from their public financial statements and may present expenditures that are associated with one budget line item as if they were associated with another line item in order to protect classified information, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board concluded last week.
Under the newly approved standard, government agencies may "modify information required by other [financial] standards" in their public financial statements, omit otherwise required information, and misrepresent the actual spending amounts associated with specific line items so that classified information will not be disclosed. (Accurate and complete accounts are to be maintained separately so that they may be audited in a classified environment.)
See Classified Activities, Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS) 56, Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, October 2018.
The new policy was favored by national security agencies as a prudent security measure, but it was opposed by some government overseers and accountants.
Allowing unacknowledged modifications to public financial statements "jeopardizes the financial statements' usefulness and provides financial managers with an arbitrary method of reporting accounting information,” according to comments provided to the Board by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General.
Properly classified information should be redacted, not misrepresented, said the accounting firm Kearney & Company. "Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) should not be modified to limit reporting of classified activities. Rather, GAAP reporting should remain the same as other Federal entities and redacted for public release or remain classified." The new policy, which extends deceptive budgeting practices that have long been employed in intelligence budgets, means that public budget documents must be viewed critically and with a new degree of skepticism.
A classified signals intelligence program dubbed "Vesper Lillet" that recently became the subject of a fraud indictment was ostensibly sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, but in reality it involved a joint effort of the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency.
See "Feds allege contracting fraud within secret Colorado spy warehouse" by Tom Roeder, The Gazette (Colorado Springs), October 5, 2018.
THE BELLS OF BALANGIGA, AND MORE FROM CRS
New and updated publications from the Congressional Research Service include the following. Russian Compliance with the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty: Background and Issues for Congress, updated October 5, 2018 Defense Primer: The NDAA Process, CRS In Focus, updated October 3, 2018 Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, CRS In Focus, updated October 2, 2018 Lebanon, updated October 5, 2018 Iraq: Issues in the 115th Congress, updated October 4, 2018 Argentina's Economic Crisis, CRS In Focus, October 2, 2018 Mexico: Background and U.S. Relations, updated October 2, 2018 Spain and Its Relations with the United States: In Brief, updated October 5, 2018 Macedonia: Uncertainty after Referendum on Country's Name, CRS Insight, October 3, 2018 Afghanistan: Legislation in the 115th Congress, October 3, 2018 U.S.-South Korea (KORUS) FTA, CRS In Focus, updated September 28, 2018: The Return of the Bells of Balangiga to the Republic of the Philippines, in Context, CRS In Focus, October 1, 2018 |
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Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
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