Idiocy – Page 122 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/01/112013/01/11

SmartPlanet: Half of All Food Wasted

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy

By Mark Halper | January 10, 2013

The world throws away up to half of its food according to an alarming report that blames consumers’ fussy preference for cosmetically appealing produce, supermarket promotions that encourage overbuying, and deficient storage, transportation and agricultural practices.

Between 1.2 billion and 2 billion metric tons of food – out of the 4 billion produced annually – never reaches a human stomach, the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers says in Waste Not Want Not – Global Food Waste: Feeding the 9 billion.

“The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering,” says Tim Fox, IME’s head of energy and environment. “This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today. It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.

“The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one-free offers.”

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2013/01/112013/01/11

NIGHTWATCH: Afghanistan – Panetta Postures, Taliban Waits

08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

Afghanistan: US Defense Secretary Panetta had talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the Pentagon on Thursday. Panetta told the media the two countries were “at the last chapter” in their effort to rebuild Afghanistan's institutions and security. Panetta said, “We've come a long way towards a shared goal of establishing a nation that you and we can be proud of, one that never again becomes a safe haven for terrorism.”

Comment: Panetta was playing to the gallery… or the mainstream American media. The situation in Afghanistan is not so rosy that anyone should be proud or thumping his or her chest or doing a victory lap.

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2013/01/042013/01/04

Marcus Auerelius: Mike Morell Has No Clue…CIA is Brain Dead and Morally Disengaged

Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude

If the Acting Director can be lied to so easily, why should he be trusted to oversee an out of control agency? Below from Senator Feinstein's web page.

Feinstein, McCain, Levin Ask CIA for ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Documents

Concerned that CIA’s cooperation was inappropriate, potentially misled filmmakers

Washington—Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Senate Armed Service Committee Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) have sent two letters to Acting CIA Director Michael Morell seeking information provided to the filmmakers of the film Zero Dark Thirty and clarification of comments made to CIA employees related to the use of coercive interrogation techniques on CIA detainees.

In the first letter, dated December 19, 2012, Feinstein, McCain and Levin stated their concern that “given the CIA’s cooperation with the filmmakers [of the film Zero Dark Thirty] and the narrative’s consistency with past public misstatements by former senior CIA officials, that the filmmakers could have been misled by information they were provided by CIA” and requested “all information and documents provided to the filmmakers by CIA officials.” The film credits CIA detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques as providing lead information on the courier that led to the UBL compound.

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s recently-adopted Study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation program concluded that the CIA did not first learn about the existence of the bin Laden courier from CIA detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques and that the CIA detainee who provided the most accurate information about the courier provided the information prior to being subjected to coercive interrogation techniques.

The senators sent a second letter to the CIA on December 31, 2012, following a message the Acting Director sent to CIA employees on December 21. In his message, Acting Director Morell stated that “Some [intelligence related to bin Laden’s location] came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well.” The senators’ letter asks Acting Director Morell to provide information obtained from CIA detainees subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques and whether such information was provided prior to, during, or after the detainee was subjected to such techniques.

Full text of both letters follows:

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2013/01/012013/01/01

DefDog: Panetta at Press Club — Pathetic! & Comment by Robert Steele with Remedial Reading List

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

While touted as strategy, I fail to see any, more like wishful thinking and hope…..and as we all know, Hope is Not a Strategy….

Remarks by Secretary Panetta at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LEON E. PANETTA: Thank you very much, Theresa, for that kind introduction. And thank you for the invitation to be here today. I look forward to the opportunity to go back and pick walnuts back in Carmel Valley. I've told this story before, but it makes the point. When I was young, my father — when he first planted that walnut orchard, as it grew, he would go around with a pole and hook and shake each of the branches. And my brother and I would be underneath collecting the walnuts. When I got elected to Congress, my Italian father said, “You've been well trained to go to Washington, because you've been dodging nuts all your life.”

True. It was great training.

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2012/12/272012/12/27

Marcus Aurelius: CIA Self-Destruction Continues…

Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude

CIA's Secret Security Group Emerges From Shadows

High-risk assignments draw many from U.S. Special Forces

By Greg Miller and Julie Tate

The rapid collapse of a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya exposed the vulnerabilities of State Department facilities overseas. But the CIA’s ability to fend off a second attack that same night provided a glimpse of a key element in the agency’s defensive arsenal: a secret security force created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Two of the Americans killed in Benghazi were members of the CIA’s Global Response Staff, an innocuously named organization that has recruited hundreds of former U.S. Special Forces operatives to serve as armed guards for the agency’s spies.

The GRS, as it is known, is designed to stay in the shadows, training teams to work undercover and provide an unobtrusive layer of security for CIA officers in high-risk outposts.

. . . . . . . .

Bodyguard details have become so essential to espionage that the CIA has overhauled its training program at the Farm — its case officer academy in southern Virginia — to teach spies the basics of working with GRS teams.

. . . . . . . . .
“They don’t learn languages, they’re not meeting foreign nationals and they’re not writing up intelligence reports,” a former U.S. intelligence official said. Their main tasks are to map escape routes from meeting places, pat down informants and provide an “envelope” of security, the former official said, all while knowing that “if push comes to shove, you’re going to have to shoot.”

Read full article.

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2012/12/232012/12/23

Marcus Aurelius: DARPA DOG Expensive Idiocy

Idiocy, Military

Meet the four-legged robot being housebroken by the US military

If you thought a soldier's best friend was a weapon, try again. Meet LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) — the four-legged machine being developed for military use by engineering firm, Boston Dynamics. The outfit designed the not-so-cuddly contraption (aka AlphaDog) under contract by DARPA to work as an aid alongside US troops. BD has been advancing this particular beast for more than two years, which has already proved it can carry up to 400 pounds of gear for about 20 miles without refueling. Just a few months ago, the robot was upgraded to jog at about 5MPH over rugged terrain to up the ante even further — an improvement over its slower-moving and noisy predecessor.   Prior collaborations between the two have spawned unique projects like Cheetah (a robot purposed to run as similarly as possible to the animal it's named after) and Atlas (a human-like droid that walks and climbs walls).

Fast forward to the present with AlphaDog now back in the spotlight, BD is ready to show off some newly engineered tricks. These latest alterations stem from two weeks of real world testing in the woods of central Virginia, demonstrating a number of improvements to its autonomy and maneuverability, including the ability to recover from a pretty substantial roll. What's more, DARPA's also shown off how the robot can respond to voice commands as well as what it calls “Leader Follow” decision making. By doing so, the loyal companion itself determines how best to trail its human counterpart. All that and some sounds to keep you up at night are in the video below.

Read full article with video option.

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2012/12/20

NIGHTWATCH: Benghazi – The Official Cover-Up

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

Special NightWatch Comment: The most important finding of the Accountability Review Board (ARB) on the Benghazi tragedy is that al Qaida is alive and well and living in Benghazi. The rest is pretty much well known, with a few exceptions.

As harsh as the words of the ARB Report seem about high level failures in the State Department, no one is held accountable. The Board found that mistakes were made. The report is essentially a white wash. Three people at State resigned today, but that is not the same as facing legal proceedings for civil or criminal negligence in wrongful death. The Board gave everyone a pass.

A few things that are confusing in the Benghazi report.

1.The Board found that the ambassador was responsible for mission security and he should have pushed harder for improvements. The implication is the ambassador ultimately was responsible his own death. Hmm….The ambassador made at least three pleas for improved security, including the last on the day of his demise. Other parts of the report make clear that no amount of pushing to improve security would have made a difference with senior State Department leadership.

2.The Board found that mistakes were made. The use of passive voice means the Board refused to find anyone, except the dead ambassador, to blame for the mistakes. The message is that things went wrong; people were murdered, but it was no one's fault. This is the core of the whitewash. This viewpoint evades questions of causality, incompetence, negligence and blame.

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