XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Monday 13 August 2012

Executive Branch Porn Problem - the epidemic of U.S. government employees viewing porn on government networks -

Executive Branch Porn Problem - the epidemic of U.S. government employees viewing porn on government networks - 



Allen W. Dulles, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wrote in “The Craft of Intelligence,” “sex and hard-headed intelligence operations rarely mix well.” Perhaps the boys at the Pentagon need a refresher course.

This past week, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency warned its staff not to view porn on U.S. government computers. The Pentagon also released a report on April’s Secret Service Colombian scandal. The two are connected.

In April, I said the Colombian scandal exposed a national security problem, the epidemic of U.S. government employees viewing porn — child porn — on government networks. I suggested readers type “Transportation Security Administration,” “U.S. State Department,” “Pentagon,” “Immigration and Customs Enforcement” and “child porn” into Google’s search field to understand the scope. I neglected to include “Missile Defense Agency.”

Bloomberg quotes a cybersecurity expert saying the Missile Defense Agency’s use of porn is concerning because “many pornographic websites are infected and criminals and foreign intelligence services such as Russia’s use them to gain access and harvest data.”

The only possible response is: Duh.

In 2006, the deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security was arrested for trying to seduce online someone he thought was a teenage girl. Four years later, the Securities and Exchange Commission found that 17 of 31 employees caught accessing porn at work since 2008 — one for up to eight hours a day — were senior staff.

In 2010, the Boston Globe reported that senior Pentagon staff were downloading child porn. Instead of generating a media storm, the story died. Senior staff were watching the sexual torture of small children on Pentagon computers, and Americans were not outraged?

The latest revelation of missile-defense staff using porn should have America extremely alarmed. It is not yet confirmed if child porn was involved.

Of the Colombian Secret Service scandal, Rep. Darrell E. Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, asked if women younger than 18 (i.e., trafficked children) were involved. Mr. Issa must demand to know the same of the Missile Defense Agency.

Read more - 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/10/executive-branch-porn-problem/

Kangaroo escapes zoo with help of fox and boar... -

Kangaroo escapes zoo with help of fox and boar... - 

A Bennett's tree-kangaroo which escaped from a breeder in Germany last year

A kangaroo is on the run in Germany after breaking out of a wildlife park, with a fox and a wild boar as his suspected accomplices.

Michael Hoffmann, assistant head of the Hochwildschutzpark Hunsrück west of Frankfurt, said on Monday the male kangaroo was one of three that escaped overnight on Saturday with the inadvertent help of the menagerie that lives in the local woods.

Hoffmann said the kangaroos got out of their enclosure after a young fox snuck into the park and dug a hole next to the cage's fencing. Two of the three were then able to escape the park entirely through another hole dug by a wild boar under the exterior fence.

"We've got two of them back; now we're just looking for the third."

Read more - 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/13/kangaroo-escapes-fox-boar-germany

US. Gov't to buy $170M in Pork, Lamb, and Catfish to help drought-stricken farmers... -

US. Gov't to buy $170M in Pork, Lamb, and Catfish to help drought-stricken farmers... - 



President Barack Obama will announce on Monday that the Department of Agriculture intends to buy up to $170 million of pork, lamb, chicken and catfish to help support farmers suffering from the drought, a White House official said.
The food purchases will go toward "food nutrition assistance" programs, like food banks. 
During a visit to Iowa, a political swing state that the Democrat hopes to win in the Nov. 6 election, Obama will press Congress to pass a farm bill with short-term relief measures for the ranchers and farmers hurt by the drought. 
The president will also direct the Department of Defense to "encourage" its vendors to speed up purchases of lamb, pork and beef and freeze it for later use. 
"This is a win-win. Farmers and ranchers will have an opportunity to sell more of their products at this critical time and taxpayers will get a better price on food that would have been purchased later," the official said. 
"The president has directed his administration to continue exploring every possible avenue to provide relief to communities struggling with this historic natural disaster." 
Obama will tour an Iowa farm to view the effects of the drought. The state is one of a handful of political swing states, including Ohio, Florida, and Colorado, that could hold the key to victory in his race with Republican Mitt Romney for the White House.

Read more - 
http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/13/13250065-in-iowa-obama-to-announce-measures-to-soothe-drought-pain?lite