NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE

Events & Coverage

1996

Materials arranged chronologically.

Weiner, Tim. "A Secret Agency's Secret Budgets Yield 'Lost' Billions, Officials Say." New York Times, 30 Jan. 1996, A1, A5 (N).

The amount that the NRO had tucked away for a rainy day was over $2 billion. The new-found funds will be used to help pay for Pentagon programs, including the mission in Bosnia and the B-2 bomber project.

New York Times. "[Editorial:] The Spy Agency That Lost $2 Billion." 1 Feb. 1996, A14 (N).

"Congress and the Pentagon need to maintain the American advantage in sophisticated spy satellites, but not by issuing blank checks to the N.R.O. or abdicating responsibility for overseeing its management. Their efforts to control the agency are welcome, but belated."

Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. Editors. "More Surplus Funds Found in Spy Agency Coffers." 3 Feb. 1996, 309.

The SSCI chairman and vice chairman have voiced concerns about the existence of an additional $820 million surplus in NRO funds that the Clinton administration wants to use to help cover the costs of the Bosnia peacekeeping mission.

Weiner, Tim. "After Errant $2 Billion, Spy Satellite Agency Heads Are Ousted." New York Times, 27 Feb. 1996, A9 (N).

NRO Director Jeffrey K. Harris and Deputy Director Jimmie D. Hill have been fired as part of the shakeup of the agency in the wake of the uproar about the salting away of some $2 billion in the NRO budget. Keith Hall has been named deputy director and acting director of the NRO.

Aerospace Daily. Editors. "NRO Chief Harris and Deputy Director Hill Are Fired." 27 Feb. 1996, 293, 295.

Anselmo, Joseph C. "NRO Chief, Deputy Fired in Agency Shakeup." Aviation Week & Space Technology, 4 Mar. 1996, 28.

Capaccio, Tony. "From Deep Black to the Web, NRO Hits Cyberspace." Defense Week, 11 Mar. 1996, 2.

Commenting on NRO's Web site at http://www.nro.gov.

Aerospace Daily. Editors. "House Intelligence Presses NRO on Small Satellites." 20 May 1996, 292-293.

Anselmo, Joseph C. "NRO Lost Track of $4 Billion." Aviation Week and Space Technology, 20 May 1996, 71.

Wilhelm, Richard J. "The New NRO: A CMS Perspective." American Intelligence Journal 17, no. 1/2 (1996): 53-55.

As Executive Director for Intelligence Community Affairs, the author heads the DCI's Community Management Staff (CMS). He concludes that the "NRO may find itself in increasing competition with new sources of intelligence.... [For example,] SPOT imagery has already proved its value to many traditional NRO customers.... [T]he NRO must look far into the future,... and plan to produce systems that will offer unique access from an overhead perspective rather than only what has been successful in the past."

[Deutch, John.] "The Future of the National Reconnaissance Program." NMIA Newsletter 11, no. 2 (1996): 13-16.

Remarks by DCI John Deutch at the ARPA Tech '96 Science and Technology Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia, on 22 May 1996. Deutch argues that two key changes "present the NRO with very different challenges" than it faced during the Cold War: "changing technology and the growing importance of resource constraints." To Deutch, the "critical user is the Department of Defense"; and it is from that perspective that Deutch would configure the NRO.

Pincus, Walter. "Panel Set Up by CIA Recommends Building Smaller, Cheaper Spy Satellites." Washington Post, 30 Jun. 1996, A11.

Jeremiah Panel. "Defining the Future of the NRO for the 21st Century: Report to the Director, National Reconnaissance Office. Final Report: Executive Summary, 26 August 1996." [http://www.fas.org/irp/nro/jeremiah.htm]

This is text of the Executive Summary of the report prepared by the panel chaired by David E. Jeremiah [ADM/USN (Ret.)]. The panel was appointed following the difficulties encountered by the NRO in 1994 (building flap) and 1995 (unspent funds), which had led to dismissal of the organization's director and deputy director in February 1996.

The Panel concluded that "the NRO continues to be the right organizational answer to the nation's space reconnaissance needs in the future because it serves the national and military equities represented by the SECDEF and DCI." In addition, the Executive Summary presents 12 issues and makes recommendations on each.

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