From 1987 to 2001, Nick Cook was Aviation Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, the international defence journal. He is currently the magazine's Aerospace Consultant. His exclusive stories for Jane's have included reports on Russian secret weapons and a second classified operation to rescue US hostages in Iran. He is also a regular contributor to the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal and writes extensively for other United Kingdom and international media. In his 18 year career, he has visited the world's leading defense establishments and has gained access to numerous top secret military facilities and bases in the US and former Soviet Union. As a regular commentator on defence and security issues, his views and analysis were sought by UK, US, and other world news media during the 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq and major conflicts in between. The programme starts by speaking of the annual Pentagon budget of 250 billion dollars which is submitted to congress for approval. From his office in London, Cook asserts that if all the line items are calculated, there is a mismatch of about 20 billion dollars, which he claims is used for 'black projects.'