The "If Only You Knew What We Know" Department:
"Shutter Control"
-> Eye in the Sky
Media correspondent Terence Smith reports on newly launched
satellite IKONOS - the government's restrictions and the
controversy over the use of its images by news organizations.
The PBS Newshour aired a _very_ interesting story today, one which
combines First Amendment rights vs National Security prior restraints
via US regulation of US corporate "dual-use" technology. Sound
familiar? Well, it depends on what your definition of the word "use"
is... if it means you want to _look_ at certain stuff, then yeah.
Apparently, 1- and 5-meter resolution satellite images are very "high
quality," in much the same way that, say, we call 128-bit crypto
"strong." To demonstrate, the Newshour (perhaps a bit
tongue-in-cheek) displayed at 1m-res aerials of a certain Beltway
roof: if I was paying attention, someone named Monica could pretty
much see precisely which air-vent to drop a cigar down. The domain
"terrorist.org" was mentioned later on in the discussion. Point taken.
Here's where it gets interesting: an itsy-bitsy little clause in the
regulations pertaining to the permissible granularity of commercially
available satellite imagery known as "Shutter Control":
(A) allows the US government to (temporarily) quash media's ability to
use and commercial companies' ability to sell such imaging, e.g. Space
Imaging Inc's high-resolution bitmaps produced by their new IKONOS
satellite, available over the web <http://www.spaceimaging.com> and
(B) specifically excludes anyone from making certain high-res images of
Israel. Go figure, huh?
You can bet there's a CIA station chief on his knees somewhere
praying -- and I don't mean the new guy at CIA's new "InQit" $28M
high-tech Silicon Valley startup... I'm guessing this one is kneeling
at a workstation just below a cluster of roof antennas someplace with
line-of-sight to the Golan Heights. Fatter of mact, I wonder what the
NROs people think about this kind of commercial competition. You let
these damned Coloradans sell 1m imagery today and the next thing you
know, someone's selling
According to the government spooksperson who appeared on the
Newshour, "Shutter Control" is all about "keeping the world safe." To
allow commercial companies to make accurate battlefield imaging
available to any Harry-Dick-or-Tom with a Freedom.net account would
cripple future Norman Schwartzkopfs' ability to mount a surprise
desert end-run on, say, a bunch of unshaven teenagers with shovels
shaped like rifles who've had junior officers (with plans to
posthumously receive the Keys to Heaven) holding real guns on them
for several days so they won't run off while a coalition of modern AF
jets drops fuel-air bombs on their heads.
Imagine that: widespread use of technology preventing aggression.
It's an interesting thought. In fact, Sen. Kerrey (sp?), while paying
proper respect to National Security, allowed as such high-tech stuff
had all sorts of wonderful civilian uses. Agriculture, weather
forcasting, disaster management, traffic control, fossil fuel
development... gee, if _everyone_ had equal access to Eyes in the
Skies, the whole Matrix might suddenly become visible! ...Wait!
Forget I said that! None of you are supposed to know about that! ;)
IANAL, but it seems to me that the First Amendment parallels between
the prior restraint on "high-resolution imaging" and the export
regulation of "strong crypto" are startlingly conspicuous.
Unfortunately, as we all could've guessed, the Genie is once again
non-Bottle-resident: foreign companies are launching planning to come
online with similar services as dozens of new satellites come online,
once again exporting US jobs so that the DoD can try to hang onto a
taqctical advantage that's sure to go away.
Check the Newshour are of the PBS website on 01 Oct 99:
<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html>
dave
PS: whois terrorist.org
Registrant:
Terrorist Organization (TERRORIST2-DOM)
1525 SW 14th #4
Portland, OR 97201
Domain Name: TERRORIST.ORG
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Sievert, Jerry (JS651) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
503-515-5649 (FAX) 503-516-5649
Billing Contact:
Sievert, Jerry (JS651) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
503-515-5649 (FAX) 503-516-5649
Record last updated on 20-Jan-97.
Record created on 26-Jun-96.
Database last updated on 30-Sep-99 04:34:27 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
DNS1.EASYSTREET.COM 206.26.36.34
DNS2.EASYSTREET.COM 198.107.0.14
