[FPSPACE] Time To Declassify Historical Imagery

[Charles P. Vick]

Space News Op-ed,
November 6, 2000

By Charles P. Vick,
Senior Research Analyst, Space Defense Policy office at the Federation of
American Scientists.

Time To Declassify Historical Imagery

Since the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released Corona satellite
imagery —  the nation’s first photo reconnaissance satellite system — in
February 1995, there has been an unprecedented impact on environmental
studies, urban planning, and legal documentation for the insurance industry,
along with documentation of history.

Corona imagery also has provided priceless insight into foreign strategic
programs of various nations, including North Korea, The Peoples Republic of
China, Taiwan, Pakistan, India, the former Soviet Union and Iran, among
others. This declassification has truly fulfilled much more than expected.
Corona imagery, combined with U-2 imagery and the still
yet-to-be-declassified follow-on film-based imagery could provide scientists
with an unprecedented, critical historical record of what Earth looked like
and how it has changed.

While the CIA and National Reconnaissance Office have been openly hoping for
the declassification of the Gambit and Hexagon imagery since October 1997,
it has yet to be fulfilled and is not expected until the of fall of 2001, if
ever. It is now in the hands of the director of Central Intelligence. .

These delays in the release of the follow-on imagery systems, a pattern of
repeated broken promises throughout the declassification programs,
discourages serious research and remains very perplexing. In fact, the
intelligence community’s priority is current events information. History
takes second place to that priority. Furthermore, it is quite expensive to
maintain classified records. U.S. President Bill Clinton’s Executive Order
12951 required that a review decision by the director of Central
Intelligence on further declassifications of imagery be conducted on or
before Feb. 22, 2000. To date there is no evidence to suggest such a
decision has been made or is forth coming. The lack of a continual
presidential directive to require that the intelligence community get moving
on this has allowed the community to get away with ignoring the issue.

While the CIA was the owner of the Corona and U-2 imagery, it is not the
controlling organization for the Gambit/KH-7, Gambit/KH-8 and Hexagon/KH-9
film-based imagery. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency is the
controlling agency, but the declassification decision is in the hands of the
director of Central Intelligence. The question has become, does the Clinton
administration still have the leadership to see this through to completion
before leaving office?

A close examination of the precise legal language of certain sections of
Executive Order 12951 is very revealing on the future prospects of the
imagery declassification.

Most telling of all is the statement that indicates that only broad-area
film-return systems will be considered for declassification. That means the
medium-high-resolution KH-7/Gambit imagery will probably be considered
because it is the oldest medium-high-resolution imagery acquired. It also
means that the medium-resolution KH-9A & B/Hexagon imagery of a lesser
quality than the KH-7 imagery will be considered for declassification. It is
unlikely that any of the very high-resolution Gambit/KH-8 imagery will be
released without a major change in declassification policy.

This will have a major impact on the historical documentation of events. Why
the intelligence community could not continue to have access to this Gambit
high-resolution, Gambit very high-resolution and Hexagon medium-resolution
imagery for themselves while it is also available for the public remains
incomprehensible to me.

The intelligence community needs to realize that these reconnaissance
satellite images document history that cannot otherwise be documented.

It represents a particularly significant source of certainty of historical
events in countries such as the former Soviet Union and China, and there are
critical lessons to be learned from this imagery. It alone, is the only way
available to accomplish this as a cross check on the accuracy of Russian
historic documentation statements.

For example, this is especially true when looking into the the Soviet Union’
s manned lunar programs. The official records of the former Soviet Union are
being contradicted by the Corona imagery. We can only begin to wonder what
the Gambit and Hexagon imagery will reveal beyond what Corona imagery has
shown. .

It seems only logical that researchers should have access to Gambit and
Hexagon imagery, regardless of the objections raised by the intelligence
community. This is true, especially in the wake of the commercially
available 1-meter satellite imagery .

It seems that because of the lack of congressional funding and political
will, there will be no film-based imagery declassification, even though a
large portion of this imagery is more than 25 years old.

Apart from the absence of compelling security barriers to the release of
various imagery and analytical products, the now operational commercial
imagery satellite systems provide a compelling incentive for the release of
the remaining archival film-based imagery. The practical utility of this new
commercial imagery will be vastly enhanced by comparing it to the historical
imagery.

Everyone concerned acknowledges Corona imagery and the follow-on systems is
a unique resource which security researchers and analysts have barely begun
to exploit. The original promise of openness has not been realized.

Surely the intelligence communities, Congress and the president can do
better by the the citizens of the United States.


My only other comment is that:
       It is fascinating that Russia has launched on Proton ISS & Commercial
payloads from the Proton/Zond launch site 81 L, R of the manned lunar
circumnavigation program, the direct competitor to Apollo-8 & many people
have toured the Energia/Buran launch facility site of the TT-05/N1-L3 Soviet
manned lunar landing program on the Baikonur Cosmodrome but we can not have
the Gambit and Hexagon imagery access or its declassification to finish
documenting that history. This is a supremely ridiculous.

_______________________
Charles P. Vick
Research Analyst
Federation of American Scientists
phone: (202) 675-1025
fax: (202) 675-1024
email: cpvick@fas.org
http://www.fas.org/