...the increasing availability of commercial satellite photos may require the government to restrict distribution.
Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, said..."I could certainly foresee circumstances in which we would not want imagery to be openly disseminated of a sensitive site of any type, whether it is here or overseas," he said.
Murrett oversees a growing intelligence discipline known as geospatial intelligence — the study of imagery, such as satellite pictures or video taken from aircraft, to discern features or activities happening anywhere on the planet.
Two U.S. companies — Digital Globe and Geoeye — (w)ith the help of about $1 billion from Murrett's agency... plan to launch new satellites with higher resolutions later this year.
While the public will begin to see crisper images online and elsewhere, government regulations will require the companies to degrade the quality of the imagery to a half-meter resolution. That means items that size are the smallest thing the satellites can detect from their positions...
...the companies' images are the backbone for Web sites such as Google Earth. Disaster relief agencies, media organizations and other private entities...
During the 2001 invasion to overthrow Afghanistan's Taliban regime, the geospatial intelligence agency bought up all the imagery over that country for several months, creating a blackout for private groups at the height of the fighting. The agency was criticized for embarking on "checkbook shutter control" and hampering relief work and public understanding of the fight.
Steven Aftergood, a secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists, said the growth of commercial satellite companies domestically and internationally may make it impossible for officials like Murrett to restrict the dissemination of imagery.
story via Secrecy News
Posted by Stubbornson at May 18, 2007 06:38 PM