The Oil Drum

192 comments on DrumBeat: September 14, 2007

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eric blair on September 14, 2007 - 3:46pm

For all we know, Rumsfeld's statement was "[According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions, but that's ridiculous."

Tell ya what - why don't you go research the matter and let us know the context.

If it matches "but that's ridiculous." position.

Because that is not the take away *I* got on Sept 10th, 2001.

The "War on Bureaucracy" I believe it was.
http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=430

The technology revolution has transformed organizations across the private sector, but not ours, not fully, not yet. We are, as they say, tangled in our anchor chain. Our financial systems are decades old. According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions. We cannot share information from floor to floor in this building because it's stored on dozens of technological systems that are inaccessible or incompatible.

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vtfarmer on September 14, 2007 - 5:41pm

Eric--

Tell ya what--I'll concede the point. Now the context was that Rumsfeld was selling a position and the GAO came out a few months later and said there were about 1.1 trillion in 'undocumentable adjustments' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense], so about half of Rumsfeld's number, but you are right, it is certainly not a 'but that's ridiculous' context.