In case the "Big Brother knows who all your friends are" thing just doesn't bother you that much, this morning AP has
this story:
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.
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.
Well, I guess that makes it something to be proud of?
Spy agencies historically avoided domestic operations out of concern for Pentagon regulations and Reagan-era executive order, known as 12333, that restricted intelligence collection on American citizens and companies. Its budget, like all intelligence agencies, is classified.
But none of those silly liberal Reagan-era restraints apply these days...
Among the government's most closely guarded secrets, the quality of pictures NGA receives from classified satellites is believed to far exceed the one-meter resolution available commercially. That means they can take a satellite "snapshot" from high above the atmosphere that is crisply detailed down to one meter level, which is 3.3 feet.
That's right. The NGA has seen you naked, and they know where you could use to lose that 10 pounds you've been complaining about.
An aside: my parents went to a public lecture in which the power of geospatial monitoring was demonstrated; for instance, we apparently use this to monitor things that more secretive governments don't just tell us about, like unreported agricultural labor riots in China.
It's fascinating. I'm not sure how disturbed I am by it, but it's just another straw on the camel's back.