3 Reasons for Secret Government Spending: “Black Budget”
.. and he said I’m paraphrasing but he said look there are three reasons for having black programs this is a man with some access to this information.
One you’re doing something that should genuinely be secret there’s about five of them and stealth ain’t one of them -
You’re doing something so stupid that you don’t want anybody to know about it and
Three you want to rip open the money bag get out a big shovel because there’s no accountability for this money
How Tim Weiner Investigated the “Black budgets”
.. get back. I tend to work from the documents that the Pentagon puts out to use the public record to get it something deeper the public record to use what’s public or what’s been declassified taking apart the Pentagon’s budget to determine what’s black what secret is kind of a reverse engineering for example if you want to know the level of secret spending in the research and development budget you’ve got a bottom line let’s say it’s 50 billion dollars you add up the several thousand unclassified line items and you’ll see that there’s a 10 billion dollar gap there so you know that 10 billion dollars is being funneled out into secret spending from there you get to a deeper level by interviewing people who have or have had access to this information and doing a great deal of reading as to the nuclear strategy and technological goals that the Pentagon is pursuing I wanted to ask you about a line that popped out of the pages of your book I could be charged with a felony for telling you I thought this is a free country where you can talk about anything in the first in the First Amendment protection there are code word classification levels and the programs discussed in that passage which are for strategic nuclear warfare Olympic bellwether Meridian Bernie in the reign of director Casey at the CIA he threatened more than a few reporters with felony prosecutions under the Espionage statutes for revealing codeword programs I seriously doubt that such a prosecution could be successfully mounted because of the First Amendment protections but there remain statutes on the book the government interprets as protecting code word classified information and they are effective statutes there on the books there there is it scary enough not to publish it no sir no sir I think the First Amendment is stronger in the back under acknowledgments and you talk about coming to Washington and not being a part of it here but you do thank some people yes and let me read the list and I want you to tell me if you can who they are in Washington I received guidance from Dina Razer mm-hmm and Donna Martin both formerly with the project on military procurement that is the organization that first dug up the raw information on the extraordinary items that the Pentagon was producing such as the coffee pots the wrenches the hammers and they do and have in the past done tremendous cost analysis of how the Pentagon produces its weapons and they have a network of people inside the Pentagon who help them gather information where do they come from they are a privately funded and a political group and they range from cheap Hawks that is people on the right of the spectrum who want the defense dollar spent efficiently to doves who want the defense dollar spent in more Pacific and perhaps and less substantial ways why would anybody want to spend money for that purpose and what kind of money do they get I don’t know I think they’re independently funded from various organizations like Ford Foundation or maybe Stewart lot I really haven’t looked behind their financing but they’re respected institutions I don’t know you know this but why are they both formerly of that project well let’s see Donna went to work for a member of Congress and Dena I believe is now a freelance author did you find them or did they find you oh I went to them and they put me onto some wonderful people inside the Pentagon Ernest Fitzgerald a Ernest Fitzgerald you.thank who earn E. Fitzgerald one of the Pentagon’s most famous and staunchest in-house critics
QUESTIONS:
What sorts of programs have been approved since 1990 to be secret under reasons #2 and #3 — stupid and unaccountable?
Does the government’s willingness to tie up journalists with prosecution vary, depending upon the program being covered?
Are current journalists doing as much coverage of secret programs as they did in the 1990s, when publishing revenue was easier to come by.
SUMMARY:
Uncovering the Black Budget
Reverse Engineering: Weiner identifies hidden spending by analyzing unclassified line items against total Pentagon budget allocations (e.g., finding a $10 billion gap in a $50 billion research and development budget).
Sources & Guidance: He relies on public documents, declassified records, and interviews with former and current defense insiders, including cost analyst Ernest Fitzgerald and weapons designer Thomas Amli.
The “Three Reasons” for Secrecy: Former defense insider Thomas Amli notes that black programs exist for three primary reasons: genuine secrecy (very rare), hiding mistakes or boondoggles, or spending large sums without public accountability.
Secrecy vs. Democratic Oversight
First Amendment Protections: Despite government threats of felony prosecution under espionage statutes for disclosing classified codeword programs, Weiner asserts that First Amendment protections remain a stronger defense for journalists.
Lack of Congressional Transparency: Certain classified entities, like the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), operate with annual budgets of $7–$8 billion but cannot legally be named on the floor of Congress, leading to a lack of public oversight even when costly errors occur.
Overall Intelligence Spending: The overall intelligence budget exceeds $25 billion annually, dominated by the NSA ($12+ billion) and NRO ($7–$8 billion), dwarfing the CIA’s roughly $4 billion budget.
The Role of Independent Organizations
Organizations like the Project on Military Procurement, the Defense Budget Project, and the National Security Archive provide independent, nonpartisan cost analyses and document access without relying on illegal leaks.
Critiques and Defense
Addressing a review by former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, Weiner defends highlighting both minor administrative misconduct (such as secret courts-martial involving misused funds) and major constitutional issues (such as the Iran-Contra affair), arguing that smaller secret abuses set the precedent for larger systemic failures.
Weiner emphasizes that while specific technical details and intelligence sources should remain protected, the constitutional requirement for an accounting of public funds demands transparency regarding overall spending levels and major weapon system costs.
How has the government’s “Black budget” changed from 1990 to 2026?
The U.S. government’s “black budget”—classified funding for intelligence agencies (the National Intelligence Program and Military Intelligence Program) along with covert military research and development—has undergone a major transformation in transparency, structure, and overall size since 1990.
Key Shifts in Spending and Structure (1990–2026)
1990s (Post-Cold War Contraction): Following the fall of the Soviet Union, total U.S. intelligence spending declined slightly from its Cold War peak. In the mid-1990s, overall intelligence spending sat around $26 billion to $28 billion annually. For the first time in history, the Director of Central Intelligence officially declassified top-line intelligence spending in 1997 ($26.6 billion) and 1998 ($26.7 billion) following FOIA litigation.
2000s (Post-9/11 Expansion): Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, classified military and intelligence spending surged significantly to fund counterterrorism, surveillance infrastructure, and dark-project technology. By 2007, top-line figures for the National Intelligence Program (NIP) were formally declassified annually, starting at $43.5 billion and climbing toward $50 billion by 2009.
2010s (Surveillance Era & Snowden Disclosures): In 2010, the government began regularly disclosing the total combined figures for both the NIP and the Military Intelligence Program (MIP), which together totaled over $80 billion annually. The 2013 Edward Snowden disclosures shed light on specific agency allocations within the $52.8 billion NIP budget, showing significant hidden funding directed to the CIA, NSA, and NRO.
2020s–2026 (Modern Highs): Classified intelligence and defense acquisition budgets have reached record highs, driven by geopolitical competition, space defense, advanced cyber capabilities, and AI research. Total intelligence spending requests exceed $115 billion annually ($81.9 billion for the NIP and $33.6 billion for the MIP), not including tens of billions in unannounced classified Department of Defense acquisitions.