Satellite Pics Going Dark?

isdale writes "Defense Tech reports the U.S. Gov't. is proposing to exempt satellite images from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The proposed exemption has already passed the Senate and awaits House/Senate conference committee this month. Not only does the exemption apply to Gov't. satellite images, but also any commercial satellite images the gov't buys and 'any... other product that is derived from such data.' That would include maps, reports, news footage, etc. This would heavily impact news gathering and probably the income of commercial satellite operators - who would only be able to sell to the U.S. Govt. And how big is the deficit already?" peter303 writes with a more optimistic story in USA Today " about building and launching a satellite for as little as $65K," as long as you can squeeze it into a 4 inch-cube.

Comments

Re:Logical continuation of earlier censorship.

[Mike Hawk]

Because we have no troops left in Afghanistan? Your whole irrational post and its +5 moderations are reason enough not to ever release satellite photos of troop movements. As if the internet crowd is even close to qualified to interpret what they mean.

Re:Unreal

[HokieJP]

Except that radar's range is limited by the curvature of the earth, and thus it cannot sense what's happening far over the oceans, where there are no radar stations. Coincidentally, hurricanes form over the open ocean. Jackass.

Re:It still doesn't make much sense

[jc42]

What they want to do here is exempt unclassified things that do not impact national security. I can't see a legitimate reason for doing that.

It seems self-explanatory when you put it that way. There are some major campaign contributors that are responsible for some of the serious environmental desctruuction (pollution, clearcutting, etc.) that's happening in a lot of the world. They need a way of keeping satellite imagery of their sites out of the hands of people like you and me. The old "national security" excuse doesn't work too well. They need a ruse to block release of photos of those sites, and this sure looks like a way to do it.