Fwd: Sale to Public of Satellite Photos Debated
Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson
lakinroe at silcom.com
Sat Jan 15 15:23:06 PST 2000
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> Subject: Sale to Public of Satellite Photos Debated
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> Saturday, January 15, 2000 | </cgi-bin/print.htm>Print this story
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> Sale to Public of Satellite Photos Debated
>
> By <mailto:Bob.Drogin at latimes.com>BOB DROGIN, Times Staff Writer
>
>
> WASHINGTON--Ever since the John F. Kennedy administration launched the
> world's first spy satellite, only senior U.S. military officials and
> policymakers have been allowed to view high-altitude, high-resolution images
> of everything from Soviet bombers to Serb tanks.
> Now the public is getting its chance, and some policy analysts say
> that's cause for concern.
> Space Imaging, a private company based in Denver, made history this
> month by distributing the first high-resolution satellite images of a North
> Korean ballistic missile site. The company soon will offer similar snapshots
> of China, Iran, Iraq and almost anywhere else on Earth to nearly anyone with
> a credit card.
> The company says that its Ikonos satellite can provide distinct
> photographic images of objects as small as 32 inches across, a clarity far
> sharper than anything publicly available before. They say that such detail
> will change the way Americans plant crops, write insurance and zone shopping
> malls, as well as monitor disasters, track pollution and watch foreign
> armies.
> But critics warn that dictators, rogue regimes and terrorists also may
> benefit. No law prevents commercial satellites from photographing U.S.
> military bases and other sensitive facilities, for example. And while the
> federal government has the right to shutter private U.S. satellites in event
> of war or other national crises, the policy remains untested.
> For now, a new space race has begun. Under a 1994 White House
directive,
> the Commerce Department has licensed 12 U.S. companies to operate
> remote-sensing satellites. Space Imaging was the first aloft, but at least
> two other U.S. companies say they will launch satellites this year. Several
> foreign companies also are reaching for the stars.
> "There could well be a dozen or so of these satellites in orbit over
the
> next few years," said Ann Florini, resident associate at the Carnegie
> Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "It's going to get a lot
> harder to hide."
> Civilian satellite pictures are not new, of course. Images from the
> government's Landsat satellite have been sold to the public since 1972. But
> the first Landsat was unable to render distinct images of objects smaller
> than 250 feet across. It showed continents and oceans, not buildings and
> cars.
> Subsequent satellites from French, Indian and Russian companies, and
> from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, brought the scale
> down to 90 feet, 60 feet, 30 feet and finally 6 feet. But the images usually
> were old, extremely limited in scope and could take weeks or months to
> obtain.
> Ikonos was launched in September from Vandenberg Air Force Base in
> California. The satellite orbits the Earth 14 times a day, 400 miles high,
> passing the same point at the same time every three days. Digital U.S.
images
> cost at least $1,000; overseas shots go for $2,000. Delivery is promised
> within hours.
> "You can count the cars in a parking lot," said Mark Brender, a Space
> Imaging spokesman. "And you can tell the difference between a car and a
> truck. You cannot read license plates. You cannot see who's driving the car.
> And you cannot tell the type or model. You can see individual trees but not
> recognize people."
> That's good enough that the federal government is likely to be the
> biggest customer. The Clinton administration has proposed spending $1
billion
> over the next six years on commercial satellite infrastructure, imagery and
> services.
> "It will give us a greater smorgasbord of things to pick from," said
> Eric Berryman, spokesman for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the
> intelligence service responsible for analyzing satellite photos and making
> military maps.
> "I guess we feel the more the merrier," agreed Rick Oborn, spokesman
for
> the National Reconnaissance Office, the blandly named agency that designs,
> builds and operates America's spy satellites. The NRO was not always so
> welcoming. Its very existence was classified until 1992.
> "We figure the commercial images can help cover the lower end of the
> need," Oborn added. "What we do is of so much a finer quality and is to meet
> specific needs, whether for national intelligence or for military operators
> in the field. So there's not a competition here. It's very much to the
> benefit of all."
> The Pentagon agrees. Unlike classified spy satellite photos, the
> military can quickly distribute commercial satellite images to troops and
> allies, a potential boon for both training and combat. Analysts thus could
> use public images to discern tanks from jeeps, and fighter planes from
> bombers, as well as the next hilltop.
> Nongovernmental organizations, including disaster relief groups, also
> are excited. For the first time, humanitarian agencies will be able to track
> distant refugee groups, for example. "We can't give classified spy
> photographs to a bunch of French doctors," said one U.S. official. "Now they
> can get their own."
> But some critics are nervous. Because of security concerns, Congress
> voted in 1996 to prohibit any U.S. company from selling satellite images of
> Israel showing objects smaller than 6 feet across. In addition, no image may
> be sold to a terrorist state or any regime under U.S. or international
> sanctions. Otherwise anyone may order satellite pictures taken of any place
> on Earth.
> David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International
> Security, a nonprofit Washington think tank, fears that the few bans on
sales
> of satellite photos are futile given the Internet and other means of
> spreading information.
> "These kind of attempts to control access to satellite imagery are
very,
> very difficult," he said. "How do they know who's buying? How do they know
> where it goes? I don't believe they'll succeed."
> John C. Baker, a policy analyst at the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp.
> think tank, sees another risk. "I'm concerned that, while we may use the
> imagery to help nongovernmental groups in a crisis situation like Kosovo,
> it's also easy to imagine the other side using the same images to drive
> [ethnic cleansing] operations."
> Moreover, interpretation of satellite photos is an inexact science at
> best. Some images are likely to spark as many arguments as they settle.
> "You and I could look at the same pictures and see very different
things
> in it," said professor Ray Williamson of the Space Policy Institute at
George
> Washington University.
> The images of North Korea's Nodong missile site are a case in point.
The
> photos first were shown on Jan. 3 on a Cable News Network broadcast. They
> next appeared in Japanese newspapers and then were posted on the Federation
> of American Scientists' Web site. They immediately became political
fodder in
> the battle over national missile defense.
> John E. Pike, head of space policy at the federation, said that the
> images showed "an underwhelming missile test facility" most notable for its
> lack of paved roads, storage facilities or staff housing.
> "If we're worried about North Korea attacking us, this won't do it,"
> Pike said. "The missile will get stuck in the mud before it gets to the
> launch pad. The dirt road goes through a rice paddy."
> But Frank Gaffney Jr., a former assistant secretary of Defense who now
> heads the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think tank in
> Washington, assailed Pike's interpretation as "preposterous."
> "Did they expect Cape Canaveral?" he asked. "This is a country that
> can't feed its people yet is pouring money into [its] missile program. The
> fact the roads aren't paved misses the point that [North Korea] has tested a
> missile at sufficient range to cause us to believe it could deliver a weapon
> of mass destruction to our shores. That's all that matters."
> Gaffney said that "all the bad guys around the world" will find uses
for
> the commercial satellite photos. "We're entering a brave new world that I
> think will cause us grief and not just in wartime."
>
> Search the archives of the Los Angeles Times for similar stories about:
> </cgi-bin/archsearch-cgi?DBQUERY=keywords%28photographs%29&DATE=last+6+mon
> ths&SECT=&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=25.htm>Photographs,
> </cgi-bin/archsearch-cgi?DBQUERY=keywords%28public+access%29&DATE=last+6+m
> onths&SECT=&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=25.htm>Public Access,
> </cgi-bin/archsearch-cgi?DBQUERY=keywords%28satellite+communications%29&DA
> TE=last+6+months&SECT=&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=25.htm>Satellite Communications,
> </cgi-bin/archsearch-cgi?DBQUERY=keywords%28space+imaging+company%29&DATE=
> last+6+months&SECT=&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=25.htm>Space Imaging (Company),
> </cgi-bin/archsearch-cgi?DBQUERY=keywords%28national+security%29&DATE=last
> +6+months&SECT=&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=25.htm>National Security,
> </cgi-bin/archsearch-cgi?DBQUERY=keywords%28terrorism%29&DATE=last+6+month
> s&SECT=&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=25.htm>Terrorism.
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