I have resisted posting in this thread up until now. I am passionate about fine engineering and trust hate seeing it destroyed. Having worked inside a Government organisation I am very familar with correct disposal,processes. Anything "Unclassified" can go to auction but anything sensitive needs more careful handling and disposal. Sadly the age old method of disposing of "sensitive" equipment has been to put it beyond use. This often, but not always, meant destruction with blunt force trauma or equivalent !
Those of a 'sensitive disposition' regarding the disposal of fine engineering that is sensitive should avoid reading about Government disposal processes. They will bring tears to your eyes. Sometimes such destructiveness is definitely warranted whilst in other cases less drastic action may be possible such as 'decommissioning' that just disables rather than destroys. Removal of the sensitive data bearing assemblies being an example of such.
Whilst threads like this may shock and sadden some readers, including me, it is a fact of life in Government equipment disposal. It is better to be blissfully unaware of such. There is nothing that can be done about it.
The ex Government/Military lenses that appear on eBay are often originally from Government disposal auctions and come from decommissioned cameras. One-offs will often escape materials recovery. Others are harvested from destroyed military hardware in IRAQ and Afghanistan.
Sadly high quality Germanium Lenses can also be considered Dual Use technology, especially if Ex Military, so that is also a limiting factor when it comes to disposal.
Germanium is a valuable material so at least Uncle Sam recognises that fact and recovers it rather than just putting the whole Camera/Lens into a disintegrator
Fraser