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The Pentagon has generated almost $6 billion over the past seven years by charging the armed forces excessive prices for fuel and has used the money — called the “bishop’s fund” by some critics — to bolster mismanaged or underfunded military programs, documents show.
Since 2015, the Defense Department has tapped surpluses from its fuel accounts for $80 million to train Syrian rebels, $450 million to shore up a prescription-drug program riddled with fraud and $1.4 billion to cover unanticipated expenses from the war in Afghanistan, according to military accounting records.
The Pentagon has amassed the extra cash by billing the armed forces for fuel at rates often much higher — sometimes $1 per gallon or more — than what commercial airlines paid for jet fuel on the open market.
[...] The Defense Department is the largest single consumer of fuel in the world. Each year, it buys about 100 million barrels, or 4.2 billion gallons, of refined petroleum for its aircraft, warships, tanks and other machines.
[...] In a statement, the Pentagon acknowledged that it accumulated $5.6 billion in “enterprise gains” from fuel purchases between 2010 and 2016, but said the surplus was the result of falling oil prices in an inherently volatile market.
As a veteran myself, this utterly fails to surprise.
Source: The Washington Post
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:40AM (2 children)
No alien moonbases I can ensure you. When I look out of the window it's mostly black with a grey ground. Quite boring but surely no aliens. But it feels kind of lonely here on the moon, especially in these large hangars with space vehicles. :P
Oh wait, there's a knock on the door.....!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:47AM (1 child)
Except if there were a human moonbase it wouldn't be secret just like the space station isn't secret.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday May 23 2017, @04:40PM
Disband the US Military. National "defense" the world's greatest overwhelming threat to global security.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...