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US Spy Imagery Agency Defends Its Work Against Critics
Washington (AFP) Oct 20, 2005 The head of the US spy imagery agency defended the work of his organization on Wednesday, saying the satellite photos, digital graphics and maps it generates were more in demand than ever by military and other government departments. "You must have, I believe, what is the geographical, the geospatial setting, whatever the problem is," said James Clapper, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and head of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). "Everything, everybody has to be in some place," Clapper told reporters. The NGA has faced sharp criticism in the US Congress, where members have questioned the agency's effectiveness in the war in Iraq and the broader effort to track potential terrorist threats. According to The Washington Post, the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, is due to release recommendations soon on the role of satellite spying activities. Clapper rejected allegations that demand for the NGA's product was on the decline among government agencies. "I have not seen it for my last four years. In fact, the opposite has been true," he said. The US Central Command, or CentCom, which oversees US troops in Iraq and throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, was "our primary customer", he said. "In the phase we are in now, the emphasis is on recovery, reconstruction. So we provide a lot of infrastructure kinds of data," Clapper said. A report published in April by an independent commission, charged with analyzing the failures of US intelligence in the search for possible weapons of mass destruction under Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, underlined the limits of satellite imagery in the US-led invasion of 1993. The report found that satellite photos failed to prove useful in locating chemical and biological weapons sites. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
Lockheed Martin's Last Titan IV Delivers National Security Payload To Space
Vandenberg AFB CA (SPX) Oct 19, 2005The United States Air Force and Lockheed Martin closed out a proud five-decade history today with the final launch of a Titan IV B rocket carrying a critical national security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). |
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