JINSA Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs February 28, 2002
Commercial Spy Satellites Pose a Challenge to Pentagon Planners
By JINSA Editorial Assistant Jessica Altschul
On October 7, the U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), an arm of the Pentagon, entered into a contract with Denver-based Space Imaging, Inc. for exclusive rights to commercial satellite images collected over the war zone in Afghanistan taken by the private company's 1600-pound IKONOS satellite. As the world's highest resolution commercial imaging satellite, IKONOS can identify objects as small as 0.82 meters across, allowing one to see people but not so great as to identify individuals.
One IKONOS image taken in April 2000 shows a terrorism training camp on the shores of Lake Darunta near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Analysts have identified a "foot march of soldiers" on a road in the training camp area. IKONOS orbits north-south 423 miles above the earth, and can 'see' the same point on earth at 0.82-meter resolution once every 3 days.
The exclusive rights license for IKONOS imagery cost the Pentagon $1.9 million a month, and that was just for the licensing up-charge. In addition the Pentagon paid $20 per sq km for all the imagery they bought. The contract was a month-to-month contract that ended in early December, and had a clause that both parties agreed to keep any of the IKONOS imagery out of the public domain until early January 2002. The deal was also made to be retroactive to Sept. 11th. Space Imaging's contract with NIMA stated that the company would not "sell, distribute, share or provide the imagery to any other entity."
If the U.S. Government wanted to keep IKONOS images confidential, it could have opted to exercise the legal right to "shutter control," the right to seize all images deemed potentially damaging. This option gives the government authority to order the company to shut down the satellite, restrict imaging over specific areas or to image specific areas of interest and provide that imagery only to the U.S. government. This option has never been used because of the liklihood of an immediate First Amendment legal challenge by the media. The Radio-Television News Directors Association wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld last fall arguing that the Space Imaging/NIMA contract is akin to the government buying up all the printing presses because it did not like what the presses could print.
John Pike, former Federation of American Scientists employee for almost 20 years, and head of GlobalSecurity.org, told National Public Radio that the media could argue "prior restraint censorship," which could turn into a lengthy court case on which the government does not wish to spend time or money. The decision to take the commercial 'contracting route' rather than the 'legal route' is considered by some to be "crafty," in the least and avoided a First Amendment showdown.
Whether or not the U.S. action could be considered legal slight of hand depends on what the reasons were for buying assured access to all of the IKONOS images. NIMA argues that the U.S. needed the satellite coverage for battlefield mapping, mission planning and even to assist with bomb damage assessments. However, many cynics argue that since the satellites already owned by the U.S. Government have resolutions of as small as 10 cm., the IKONOS was not really needed and that the contract was just a way to keep information about the progress of the conflict out of the hands of the media. The U.S. has seven overhead imaging satellites currently in orbit, four of which, known as KH-11 "Keyholes," take photographic images estimated to be 6 to 10 times better than the IKONOS satellite's capabilities. Some speculate that one reason the government preferred to use pictures from a commercial satellite is so they don't have to "doctor" images from military spy satellites in order to preserve secrecy surrounding their capabilities. When images taken by military satellites are publicly released or shared with certain allies, they must be altered so that the strengths and weaknesses of the satellite's imaging systems are not revealed. It is easier for the Government to buy and release images taken by commercial satellites. This could have been a motive for the government's purchase of commercial imagery. In addition, commercial satellite imagery can easily be shared with allies and coalition partners since the imagery is unclassified.
Although the U.S. military has other imaging satellites with higher resolution, the use of IKONOS allows the military satellites to concentrate on targets requiring more precise photography. Also, data obtained by IKONOS, if circulated outside the U.S. government, could have national security implications. One major concern voiced by Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International and former assistant defense secretary for public affairs, is that because there is a potential refugee crisis in Afghanistan, the only way the world would know about it is from satellite imagery. Without knowing about the refugee crisis as it is happening, surrounding countries would not have any chance to respond or form a plan of action.
Space Imaging can still sell imagery from the war zone, provided the Defense Department approves the sale; before the contract, the media had been paying roughly $500 per image. The images can take weeks or even months to deliver due to tasking backlogs and orbital schedules - proving to be a hassle for the media - however, the Pentagon has been paying a premium to get them quickly.
On December 5, 2001, the contract between NIMA and Space Imaging expired, leaving NIMA one month to renew it and preserve the agreed-upon details. Mark Brender, Space Imaging's Executive Director of Government Affairs and Corporate Communications, said that while NIMA has not renewed their contract, the company is still supplying imagery and products to NIMA. The two organizations have recently finished negotiating details about what will be done with the war-zone imagery. As of this writing, all the imagery acquired by the Pentagon under the terms of the NIMA Enduring Freedom contract with Space Imaging is now available for sale in the company's commercial archive, and there are no restrictions on the collection of any new imagery in the Afghanistan region.
Copyright 2002 JINSA Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
