[FairOpinion]

NRO = National Reconnaissance Office.

As far as I know -- from open sources -- they launch super secret satellites which look down on earth and can see objects as small as licence plates, they also have satellites which can and do intercept electronic transmissions, and they also receive the information and process it. I think I read somewhere that there is so much information, that they are weeks behind, and that something that MAY have helped in learning about the 9-11 attacks didn't get processed and translated until after 9-11.

I think there was a book written about them some time ago too.

[alnitak]

A chap called William E Burrows wrote a book called "Deep Black" about the development of US spy satellites, esp. the Keyhole series (think Hubble, but pointing down).

There is also some fascinating info in his book "This New Ocean", a history of space flight and exploration. The NRO's spy satellites are operated from the Satellite Control facility, a windowless building called the "Big Blue Cube" in Sunnyvale, California.

Perhaps some CA freeper could drive by and take some photos :-) On second thoughts, maybe we should stick to these:

http://209.165.152.119/af_track/bob_afscf_index.html