Want to Track the Pentagon’s Funding? Here’s How You Can Follow the Money by Michael Morisy.
From the post:
In the 2017 financial year, the US Department of Defense alone spent about $590 billion, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, DC. Even veteran journalists who cover the US government extensively can find themselves stumped.
“It was like an acid flashback getting your email,” said Steve Fainaru, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. “This was a huge issue for us. We couldn’t get these contracts.”
His reporting from Iraq shows millions in cost overruns for security contractors.
Since that series, new databases have been posted online that can help those looking to follow the money wherever it flows, including making it easier to trace contracts from companies in a specific country or servicing a particular area.
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I’m not sure you will agree with “…making it easier to trace contracts from companies…(emphasis added)” but perhaps it is “easier” than before recent changes.
Certainly a very helpful article for journalists and anyone interested in information the government is willing to share. I take sharing of information by governments and corporations to indicate the shared information is of little value.
That said, tracking Pentagon funding also turns up entities, people and locations with access to data that isn’t intended for sharing. A ripe field for pentesting and security upgrade services.
Perhaps not the intent of the information sources mentioned by Morisy, but then information you can’t weaponize isn’t very interesting is it?