"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions"

-- US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on...they have to cover it up...that's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."

-- Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service

"[the defense budget] numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year"

-- Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney

"With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in [the Pentagon building]"

-- Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan

-- The War On Waste (possibly by Vince Gonzales); CBSNews.com; Jan. 29, 2002

"the federal government is keeping its books much like Enron did, and all of us will end up paying for it"

-- Sheila Weinberg, the Institute for Truth in Accounting

-- Federal reports blasted BY KEN GOZE; West Proviso [IL] Herald, 1/1/2003; Digital Chicago Inc.; ["http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/wp/01-01-03-27530.html"] (this article was cached for a time at ["http://www.unknownnews.net/cache34.html"], where it was found on or about 1-1-03)

"The sprawling, voracious, military-industrial complex has constituted anything but free enterprise from its very inception during World War II. In this vast cesspool of mismanagement, waste, and transgressions not only bordering on but often entering deeply into criminal conduct, no consumer-determined bottom line has dictated which firms would survive and which would go bankrupt. Instead, recurrent government bailouts have been the order of the day. The great arms firms have managed to slough off much of the normal risk of doing business in a genuine market, passing on many of their excessive costs to the taxpayers while still realizing extraordinary rates of return on investment. Meanwhile, high taxes to support the military-industrial complex have punished all those striving to operate businesses in the actual free market." -- Robert Higgs

-- Ali's Voice ["http://alisvoice.blogspot.com/2006/03/sprawling-voracious-military.html"] by Ali Massoud, March 09, 2006; citing Robert Higgs: The Independent Institute ["http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=489"]

"In real life, much of what's kept under wraps has little or nothing to do with national security or the war on terror.

Instead, it can involve muzzling critics, covering up corruption and incompetence, or simply mindless bureaucracy."

"To those in power, keeping facts hidden makes life easier; the probability of oversight drops."

"It's hard to see special interests at work when the doors are closed."

"Each year, the government hands out about $300 billion in contracts. Yet there's no requirement that it collect and publish information on criminal, civil and administrative actions involving contractors. Industry lobbyists for the largest contractors have no trouble foiling efforts by shoestring-budget public interest groups to force the government to reveal those details."

"The irony of secrecy for the sake of secrecy is that it can make the nation less safe."

"...secrecy should be the rare exception, not the rule."

-- Secrecy hides accountability; Mar 14, 2006; USA TODAY

"...we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disasterous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, US Republican President, 1961

-- page 815, Dwight David Eisenhower, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th edition, by John Barlett, Little, Brown, and Company, 1980

-- Report: Lawmakers Have Nearly $200M Invested In Companies Doing Defense-Related Work ANNE FLAHERTY | April 3, 2008

-- U.S. lawmakers earn millions out of Iraq war: Report April 4, 2008 Source by News Agencies

"Convicted congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a new study says, took advantage of secrecy and badgered congressional aides to help slip items into classified bills that would benefit him and his associates."

"Cunningham's case puts a stark spotlight on the oversight of classified — or "black" — budgets. Unlike legislation dealing with social and economic issues, intelligence bills and parts of defense bills are written in private, in the name of national security."

-- Classified bills a refuge for mischief By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press; 7-23-06

The main US stocks were destroyed after 1969, but samples were kept and distributed for various reasons.