Posted on 11/29/2009 12:01:59 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair should sign by Dec. 1 a document laying out new responsibilities for the National Reconnaissance Office, builder and operator of America’s spy satellites.
This will set in motion the first substantial changes to the NRO charter since 1965, four years after then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara created the NRO and drafted its charter. The NRO is led by former Air Force Gen. Bruce Carlson,
The new document, called a statement of principles, lays out eight core ideas meant to guide the NRO, according to a source familiar with the document. This will become the foundation for the new NRO charter, which most intelligence community and Pentagon officials feel strongly must be updated.
But the document’s main guiding principle has some observers worried that it will give the NRO too much power, particularly over some Air Force satellite systems. The key here is just what will the NRO build and operate. One phrase in the statement of principles worries these observers: “overhead reconnaissance systems.”
This, said our source, “could include Air Force systems,” and thus gives the spy agency powers it currently does not possess. That worries military space advocates. They worry that the NRO could take budgetary and programmatic control over some systems currently controlled by the services, especially the Air Force.
A former senior government official argued that no one should worry since the intelligence community performs different functions than does the military. NRO reconnaissance satellites look for the unknown, this source said, and then cue military systems which perform surveillance. This source said surveillance means watching known targets.
(Excerpt) Read more at dodbuzz.com ...
Gotta do something, the CIA and FBI are worthless. They're so beaten down by the parade of high govt. officials and congressmen accusing them of corruption and incompetence that they've gone into full bunker mode. Can't necessarily say I blame them, how much are they supposed to take?
Maybe the NRO could divide itself into two ersatz agencies, like the NSA/CSS. The national side could concentrate on national assets and requirements, and the military side could ensure that the services and unified commands get their due.
Good Point.
The government is broke and too much money has been wasted. The NRO had a big screw from the Clinton administration picking the wrong contractor in the 1990’s. This country is in big trouble. The NRO is just on piece of the problem.
“We can’t solve old problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Maj Gen Ken Israel USAF
CG, NRO
MI Ping
This begins to remind me of when Albert Goron wanted to retask spy satellites to show the earth rather than keep an eye on our enemies.
Hussein. alike all leftists, does not trust the military and will take things away from the military that he prefers personal control over.
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