[Clips] Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space

[R.A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


  Delivered-To: rah at shipwright.com
  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 13:08:49 -0400
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space
  Reply-To: rah at philodox.com
  Sender: clips-bounces at philodox.com

  <http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060513/D8HIRAK80.html>


  My Way News

  Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space

  May 13, 6:29 AM (ET)

  By KATHERINE SHRADER


  WASHINGTON (AP) - A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken
  from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.

  In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations,
  the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Air
  Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, is proud of that domestic mission.

  He said the work the agency did after hurricanes Rita and Katrina was the
  best he'd seen an intelligence agency do in his 42 years in the spy
  business.

  "This was kind of a direct payback to the taxpayers for the investment made
  in this agency over the years, even though in its original design it was
  intended for foreign intelligence purposes," Clapper said in a Thursday
  interview with The Associated Press.

  Geospatial intelligence is the science of combining imagery, such as
  satellite pictures, to physically depict features or activities happening
  anywhere on the planet. A part of the Defense Department, the NGA usually
  operates unnoticed to provide information on nuclear sites, terror camps,
  troop movements or natural disasters.

  After last year's hurricanes, the agency had an unusually public face. It
  set up mobile command centers that sprung out of the backs of Humvees and
  provided imagery for rescuers and hurricane victims who wanted to know the
  condition of their homes. Victims would provide their street address and
  the NGA would provide a satellite photo of their property. In one way or
  another, some 900 agency officials were involved.

  Spy agencies historically avoided domestic operations out of concern for
  Pentagon regulations and Reagan-era executive order, known as 12333, that
  restricted intelligence collection on American citizens and companies. Its
  budget, like all intelligence agencies, is classified.

  On Clapper's watch of the last five years, his agency has found ways to
  expand its mission to help prepare security at Super Bowls and political
  conventions or deal with natural disasters, such as hurricanes and forest
  fires.

  With help, the agency can also zoom in. Its officials cooperate with
  private groups, such as hotel security, to get access to footage of a lobby
  or ballroom. That video can then be linked with mapping and graphical data
  to help secure events or take action, if a hostage situation or other
  catastrophe happens.

  Privacy advocates wonder how much the agency picks up - and stores. Many
  are increasingly skeptical of intelligence agencies with recent revelations
  about the Bush administration's surveillance on phone calls and e-mails.

  Among the government's most closely guarded secrets, the quality of
  pictures NGA receives from classified satellites is believed to far exceed
  the one-meter resolution available commercially. That means they can take a
  satellite "snapshot" from high above the atmosphere that is crisply
  detailed down to one meter level, which is 3.3 feet.

  Clapper says his agency only does big pictures, so concerns about using the
  NGA's foreign intelligence apparatus at home doesn't apply.

  "We are not trying to examine an individual dwelling, for example, because
  what our mission is normally going to be is looking at large areas," he
  said. "It doesn't really affect or threaten anyone's privacy or civil
  liberties when you are looking at a large collective area."

  When asked what additional powers he'd ask Congress for, he said, "I
wouldn't."

  His agency also handles its historic mission: regional threats, such as
  Iran and North Korea; terrorist hideouts; and tracking drug trade.
  "Everything and everybody has to be some place," he said.

  He considers his brand of intelligence a chess match. "There are
  sophisticated nation states that have a good understanding of our
  surveillance capabilities," including Iran, he said. "What we have to do is
  counter that" by taking advantage of anomalies or sending spy planes and
  satellites over more frequently.

  Adversaries who hide their most important facilities underground is a trend
  the agency has to work at, he said.

  NGA was once a stepchild of the intelligence community. But Clapper said it
  has come into its own and become an equal partner with the other spy
  agencies, such as the CIA.

  Experience-wise, the agency is among the youngest of the spy agencies.
  About 40 percent of the agency's analyst have been hired in the last five
  years.

  "They are very inexperienced, and that's just fine. They don't have any
  baggage," said Clapper, who retires next month as the longest serving
  agency director. "The people that we are getting now are bright, computer
  literate. ... That is not something I lie awake and worry about."

  --
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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'