Monday, May 15, 2006

They're watching me. And I don't care.

"A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.

In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, is proud of that domestic mission.

He said the work the agency did after hurricanes Rita and Katrina was the best he'd seen an intelligence agency do in his 42 years in the spy business.

"This was kind of a direct payback to the taxpayers for the investment made in this agency over the years, even though in its original design it was intended for foreign intelligence purposes," Clapper said in a Thursday....

After last year's hurricanes, the agency had an unusually public face. It set up mobile command centers that sprung out of the backs of Humvees and provided imagery for rescuers and hurricane victims who wanted to know the condition of their homes. Victims would provide their street address and the NGA would provide a satellite photo of their property. In one way or another, some 900 agency officials were involved.
...

"We are not trying to examine an individual dwelling, for example, because what our mission is normally going to be is looking at large areas," he said. "It doesn't really affect or threaten anyone's privacy or civil liberties when you are looking at a large collective area.""

This doesn't seem like an invasion of privacy. I already thought they did this as a normal thing. And how is helping with search and rescue a bad thing after a hurricane? And another thing. Why is this story coming out now, many months after the 'domestic' spying started? Because there's a new guy up for CIA appoinment. This, and the idiotic phone stories about collecting the number of calls, who they were to, and what length they were being an invasion of privacy is stupid. I can get more information about some one who visits this blog then that.

Not that I'd do anything with it. :D

4 comments:

TheEarthCanBeMoved said...

HOOAH!!!
That's what I'll be doing with my major.
Geospatial stuff is a big deal these days.

RobertDWood said...

Geospatial?

Earth and Space...?

Carey said...

Oh great.

That whole government spying on the people thing does creep me out a bit, but in the same time, I'm not sure if I really care. So what if someone watches me? I have nothing to hide. Don't know. Mixed feelings about that subject.

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