Sean Hannity Live Thread

That Black satellite program is the one the guest thinks is the biggie (leaked Dec 04).

The (Senators') names correspond ...

NEW YORK - What is the hush-hush intelligence project that apparently costs a fortune and has angered key Democratic senators?
Intelligence experts speculate that the highly classified endeavor is a top-secret satellite that would, or perhaps already can, intercept and shut down other countries' spy satellites.
The debate over the project leaked into the open on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, when Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, publicly complained that an unnamed spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."
Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators - Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon - refused to sign a congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities. But Rockefeller declined to discuss the precise nature of the project, saying that would have to wait until the Senate could go into closed session.
After a frenzied round of press inquiries on Thursday, Rockefeller's office released a statement saying, "Any assertion about classified intelligence programs based on Senator Rockefeller's statement is wholly speculative."
NBC: What is America's top-secret spy program?
Some Question Price and Need
By Dana Priest - Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 11, 2004; Page A01
The United States is building a new generation of spy satellites designed to orbit undetected, in a highly classified program that has provoked opposition in closed congressional sessions where lawmakers have questioned its necessity and rapidly escalating price, according to U.S. officials. ...
The satellite in question would be the third and final version in a series of spacecraft funded under a classified program once known as Misty, officials said. ...
Earlier this week, four Democratic senators refused to sign the "conference sheets" used by the House-Senate conference committee working on the 2005 intelligence authorization bill. Sources said that was meant to protest inclusion once again of the satellite program.
A statement by conference managers said only that four Democratic senators -- John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), vice chairman of the intelligence committee; Carl M. Levin (Mich.); Richard J. Durbin (Ill.); and Ron Wyden (Ore.) -- objected to a classified item in the bill "that they believe is unnecessary and the cost of which they believe is unjustified." It continued: "They believe that the funds for this item should be expended on other intelligence programs that will make a surer and greater contribution to national security." Some Republican lawmakers have concerns about the program as well, as do some senators on the Armed Services Committee, sources said.
In an attempt to verbalize frustration while abiding by classification constraints, Rockefeller made an unusual reference to his protest on the Senate floor.
New Spy Satellite Debated On Hill

The Spy Satellite So Stealthy that the Senate Couldn't Kill It
Secret Program First Described in Book by Archive Senior Fellow
Washington, D.C., December 14: Front page stories in The Washington Post ("New Spy Satellite Debated on Hill," Dec. 11, 2004) and The New York Times ("New Spy Plan Said to Involve Satellite System," Dec. 12, 2004) describe a secret satellite program that the Senate intelligence committee has voted to cancel but survives in the current intelligence budget due to strong support from the House and Senate appropriations committees and the House intelligence committee.
Senator John D. Rockefeller, the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the program "is totally unjustified and very wasteful and dangerous to national security." Rockefeller, who said he had voted to terminate the program for two years but was "overruled" by the appropriations committees, was joined by three other Democratic senators in refusing to sign a compromise worked out by Senate and House negotiators over future U.S. intelligence programs.
The stealth satellite program at issue was first described publicly in Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson's book, The Wizards of Langley: Inside the$ of Science and Technology, first published in 2002 (Boulder: Westview Press, 386 pp.). An excerpt from Dr. Richelson's book is posted below. [The first link has some great reading!]
Also published here are two additional documents that shed light on this issue: a declassified National Reconnaissance memorandum from 1963 on the possibility of creating a covert satellite system; and a U.S. patent issued to Teledyne Industries in 1994 for a "satellite signature suppression shield." ...
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB143/index.htm

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