Keeyth
01-13-2006, 02:01 PM
From this weeks Tuesday Morning Quarterback on www.nfl.com :
My Name Is Geek, James Geek. I'm a Secret Agent for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Seriously, It's a Real Agency. Hey, Don't Leave, I'll Buy You a Vodka Martini: Your tax dollars fund the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency (which breaks codes) and the National Reconnaissance Office (which operates spy satellites). Merely the existence of the National Security Agency and National Reconnaissance Office once were secrets -- government officials were supposed to pretend they had never heard of either. Now both have websites; the National Security Agency site includes a cool Flash intro you can skip if you're in a hurry. Last fall, the once-super-secret National Reconnaissance Office hosted a reception to honor participants in Poppy, an electronic eavesdropping program of the Cold War. Super-secret agency hosts cocktail party!
If you see a Global Hawk flying above, put your clothes on.
But even most conspiracy freaks have never heard of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, which makes satellite maps of Earth's surface, plus tracks the movements of ships and planes. Right now, the NGIA is seeking permission to fly Predator and Global Hawk military drones above the United States, to record an ultra-high-resolution map of the nation's surface. Planning to sunbathe nude? The NGIA may digitally map your anatomical proportions. The unmanned drone aircraft operating above Iraq and Afghanistan are "flown" by operators sitting in offices at air bases in Arizona, New York and Texas. A regulatory dispute is brewing because the Federal Aviation Administration mandates that above the United States, only licensed pilots with an instrument-flight rating can fly an aircraft higher than 18,000 feet; the FAA wants this rule applied to the NGIA's remote-controlled drones. The NGIA, the technical journal Aviation Week recently reported, is claiming that as a spy agency it can ignore FAA air-safety regulations and use people who aren't pilots to fly the drones above the United States -- maybe outsource operation of the drones to India? The NGIA even claims it can order airspace closed, presumably to prevent pilots of civilian aircraft from snapping pictures that show government drones are conducting spy flights in America's own skies. Having good digital maps of the country's surface might be a valid policy objective. But a secret agency wants to suspend aviation safety rules in order to use military aircraft to spy on the United States. When, exactly, are the establishment media going to notice this story?
My Name Is Geek, James Geek. I'm a Secret Agent for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Seriously, It's a Real Agency. Hey, Don't Leave, I'll Buy You a Vodka Martini: Your tax dollars fund the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency (which breaks codes) and the National Reconnaissance Office (which operates spy satellites). Merely the existence of the National Security Agency and National Reconnaissance Office once were secrets -- government officials were supposed to pretend they had never heard of either. Now both have websites; the National Security Agency site includes a cool Flash intro you can skip if you're in a hurry. Last fall, the once-super-secret National Reconnaissance Office hosted a reception to honor participants in Poppy, an electronic eavesdropping program of the Cold War. Super-secret agency hosts cocktail party!
If you see a Global Hawk flying above, put your clothes on.
But even most conspiracy freaks have never heard of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, which makes satellite maps of Earth's surface, plus tracks the movements of ships and planes. Right now, the NGIA is seeking permission to fly Predator and Global Hawk military drones above the United States, to record an ultra-high-resolution map of the nation's surface. Planning to sunbathe nude? The NGIA may digitally map your anatomical proportions. The unmanned drone aircraft operating above Iraq and Afghanistan are "flown" by operators sitting in offices at air bases in Arizona, New York and Texas. A regulatory dispute is brewing because the Federal Aviation Administration mandates that above the United States, only licensed pilots with an instrument-flight rating can fly an aircraft higher than 18,000 feet; the FAA wants this rule applied to the NGIA's remote-controlled drones. The NGIA, the technical journal Aviation Week recently reported, is claiming that as a spy agency it can ignore FAA air-safety regulations and use people who aren't pilots to fly the drones above the United States -- maybe outsource operation of the drones to India? The NGIA even claims it can order airspace closed, presumably to prevent pilots of civilian aircraft from snapping pictures that show government drones are conducting spy flights in America's own skies. Having good digital maps of the country's surface might be a valid policy objective. But a secret agency wants to suspend aviation safety rules in order to use military aircraft to spy on the United States. When, exactly, are the establishment media going to notice this story?