Somewhere, Osama bin Laden is laughing his jockstrap off.

Initial investment: One case box cutters, several introductory sessions of flying school, 19 coach class tickets.

Return on investment:

The U.S. Air Force is asking the Pentagon's leadership for a staggering $50 billion in emergency funding for fiscal 2007 -- an amount equal to nearly half its annual budget, defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said on Tuesday.

... Thompson, who has close ties to U.S. military officials, said the big funding request was fueled by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. England told the services in a October 25 memo to include the "longer war on terror," not just the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in their emergency requests.

In officially-unrelated news, Halliburton stock is doing just fine, thanks.