Hall, Keith R. "The
National Reconnaissance Office -- Freedom's Sentinal in Space." American Intelligence Journal
19, nos. 3 & 4 (1999-2000): 1-12.
Materials presented in chronological order.
Hall, Keith R. "The
National Reconnaissance Office -- Freedom's Sentinal in Space." American Intelligence Journal
19, nos. 3 & 4 (1999-2000): 1-12.
The author is Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space. Here, he gives a general overview of the NRO's past, present, and future.
Myers, Steven Lee.
"In One of Few Problems, Link to Spy Satellite
Fails." New York Times, 2 Jan. 2000. [http://www.nytimes.com]
A computer system at a National Reconnaissance Office ground station failed at midnight Greenwich Mean Time on 1 January 2000. The failure "cut communications with one of the nation's secret spy satellites for two to three hours on [31 December 1999] and continued to hobble its operations [on 1 January 2000], Pentagon officials said.... The satellite continued to operate normally, but the disruption made it impossible to process the information it was transmitting back to earth, the officials said. No other satellites were affected."
Reuters. "Pentagon Fixes Its Spy-2K Glitch." 3 Jan. 2000. [http://www.msnbc.com]
On 3 January 2000, the United States "recovered full use of a critical spy satellite system.... The ground link that processes the satellites' feed 'returned to full operational status...' after repairs were wrapped up overnight, Defense Department spokeswoman Susan Hansen said.... The glitch apparently interrupted access to the most advanced U.S. eyes in the sky[,] the Air Force's Keyhole photographic reconnaissance satellites and Lacrosse all-weather imaging satellites.... Experts deduced that the failure had occurred at the Defense Communications Electronic Evaluation Test Activity, a sprawling facility dubbed 'Area 58' at Fort Belvoir, Va."
McWethy, John. "Y2K Bug Causes Intelligence Losses; Defense Silent Due to Terrorist Fears." ABCNews, 4 Jan. 2000. [http://www.abcnews.go.com]
Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre acknowledged on 4 January 2000 that the "intelligence blackout on New Year's Eve ... was a big deal." Hamre said: "'It was not an unimportant dimension. It was a significant dimension.' ... [F]or two hours, the United States lost all information from spy satellites that take pictures over places like the Middle East and Russia. The data was beamed back to Earth, officials say, but computers at Fort Belvoir, Va., could not translate the information.... Temporary repairs were begun quickly, but it took two days to complete the job."
Anselmo, Joseph C.
"Y2K Knocks Out NRO Imagery." Aviation Week & Space Technology,
10 Jan. 2000, 27.
Diamond, John. "Satellites
on Blink for Days." Chicago Tribune, 13 Jan. 2000, 1.
Lardner, Richard. "Pre-Y2K
Problems Undercut Operation of U.S. Satellite Imagery Network." Inside
the Pentagon, 13 Jan. 2000, 1.
Diamond, John. "Pentagon
Defends Reliabilty of Satellites." Chicago Tribune, 14 Jan.
2000, 1.
Laurenzo, Ron. "NRO
Chief Sees Industry Helping Out with Satellite Spy Duties." Defense
Week 21, no. 6 (7 Feb. 2000): 3 ff.
Loeb,
Vernon. "Back Channels: The Intelligence Community -- Looking Over
NRO." Washington Post, 11 Feb. 2000. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
The new 11-member commission to review NRO operations met for the first time on 10 February 2000 . Members include former NSA official Larry Cox, former NRO director Marty Faga, businessman Eli Jacobs, and retired Army Lt. Gen. Patrick Hughes.
Wall, Robert. "Larger Intelligence Review to Follow NRO Study." Aviation
Week & Space Technology, 2 Oct. 2000, 45.
The Commission for the Review of the NRO "is nearing the completion of its work." The commission is co-chaired by Sen. Robert Kerrey (D-NB) and Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL). According to Goss, the process is going to redefine the mission of the NRO. The findings of the commission are expected to focus on management issues.
U.S. National
Commission for the Review of the National Reconnaissance Office. Report:
The National Commission for the Review of the National Reconnaissance Office. Washington, DC: GPO, 14 Nov. 2000.
The Commission's "List of Recommendations" is contained in Appendix A.
"Overall Finding and Conclusion: The Commission concludes that the National Reconnaissance Office demands the personal attention of the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence. It must remain a strong, separate activity, with a focus on innovation, within the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense. Failure to understand and support the indispensable nature of the NRO as the source of innovative new space-based intelligence collection systems will result in significant intelligence failures. These failures will have a direct influence on strategic choices facing the nation and will strongly affect the ability of U.S. military commanders to win decisively on the battlefield."
Appendix D covers the "Historical Development of the Secretary of Defense-Director of Central Intelligence Relationship with the NRO."
Loeb,
Vernon. "Panel Report Reveals Satellite Details." Washington
Post, 24 Nov. 2000, A41. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"[B]uried deep in Appendix F" of the Report of the Commission for the Review of the National Reconnaissance Office, "the commission revealed that the NRO has six different satellites in development. The first of the six went into development about 1994 and should be completed sometime next year. The last of the six -- which could be the first of the so-called Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) satellites -- was begun in 1998 and will take six years to finish."
Singer, Jeremy. "Congressional Panel Proposes NRO Space Reconnaissance Office." Space News, 27 Nov. 2000, 4.
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