Security precautions can indeed blur the transparency of a company's financial performance -- one that's extremely important in the post-Enron corporate world. Under fire over some of the biggest corporate scandals during the last decade, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been trying to change the data standards to ensure greater accountability and support decision makers. On the other hand, the U.S's Intelligence Czar, John Negroponte remains in position to "exempt" publicly traded companies from reporting matters in relation to nothing else but national security.
From the article :
"Now, the White House’s top spymaster can cite national security to exempt businesses from reporting requirements President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye."
What the U.S government gets is stimulated to invest in homeland security publicly traded companies, given the benefits of the possible "exemption" and countless opportunities for profitable speculation. If the backdoor left gets used for purposes other than classifying some obvious defense contractors' accounting histories I wouldn't doubt seeing Coca Cola diversifying to take advantage of expanding the unaccountable R&D department. Moreover, today I came across to an independent research stating that classified and unaccountable military spending is at its peak.
It's fascinating to label something as top secret and let the world know about it 30 years later in order to lose the public effect of the discovery, still "excusing" companies to fuel growth would open up a great deal for corporate fraud schemes, but yes, investments too.