got geoint?

Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope you had a restful weekend with family and friends. Sometimes its easy to get lulled into a sense of relaxation on the weekends during these early summer months. But, fret not Monday mornings always come around — and we all need to be on top of our game. As such, we have compiled all of the actionable news you need to kick start your work week. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on. And, just remember, your summer vacation down at the beach is just weeks away. Happy Monday!

IC Vet Clapper Well Qualified to be DNI
‘He is the consummate intelligence professional who has the respect of virtually everybody in the community.’
It’s been nearly twenty years since I had dinner with then Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper (since retired) following one of the first major symposiums on post-Cold War weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation held at the National Defense University in Washington, DC. At the time, Clapper headed the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Seated with us was an official of the new Russian government’s foreign ministry, whose conversation with Clapper was focused on the seriousness of Russia’s efforts to secure its nuclear arsenal and materials and to prevent the threat of “loose nukes,” which Clapper said particularly worried him. Read the full HS Today Op-Ed by Anthony Kimery here.

Administration and Senate in Standoff Over Intelligence Czar
The Obama administration and the Senate intelligence committee are engaged in a high-stakes confrontation in which senators appear likely to slow-roll the confirmation of Pentagon official James Clapper as director of national intelligence until the administration helps the committee push through a stalled intelligence-authorization bill. Both houses of Congress have passed similar versions of the legislation, which is aimed at improving congressional oversight of spy agencies and bolstering the powers of the intelligence czar’s office. But by posing objections—some of them backed up with veto threats—to various provisions, White House officials held up the legislation for months. One proposal Obama aides are objecting to would give the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, more authority to investigate spy agencies. Another would require agencies to more thoroughly brief all intelligence-committee members about highly sensitive secret activities, rather than limiting such briefings to a handful of congressional leaders (often known as the “Gang of Eight”). Read the full Newsweek blog post here.

Prototype Hyperspectral Satellite Fast-Tracked to Begin Official Spy Work for Military
After a year of tests, a hyperspectral spy satellite is being called into service this weekend as a military reconnaissance tool, the Air Force says. The Tactical Satellite-3, or TacSat-3, uses hyperspectral imaging to identify objects of interest in the ground and supply coordinates for them. Within 10 minutes of passing overhead, laptop-sized ground terminals can mark points of interest for combat troops, as the Register reports. In its 13-month experimental flight, TacSat-3 assisted with earthquake relief efforts in Haiti and Chile, and took more than 2,100 photos with its Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer, or ARTEMIS. Read the full Popular Science article here.

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) Exercises the First Monthly Option to Extend Its NextView Service Level Agreement With DigitalGlobe
DigitalGlobe, a leading global content provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, today announced that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, has exercised the first of its monthly options to extend its Service Level Agreement, or SLA, with DigitalGlobe. This option becomes effective July 1, 2010 and runs through July 31, 2010. It represents the first of up to six one-month extensions with the NGA, with the last option term expiring on Dec. 31, 2010. Read the full press release here.

WikiLeaks and National Security
In the old days, people who wanted to leak confidential national-security documents had to find an interested journalist and hope his publisher would go with the story. This often came after journalistic soul-searching on the balance between national security and the public’s right to know. How quaint. Now leakers can post documents directly and anonymously on a website called WikiLeaks, which brags that its system hasn’t yet been traced. Based on recent WikiLeaks by a young, disaffected U.S. soldier, even those of us who cheer disclosure need to think twice about what technology now allows. Read the full WS article here.

Digital Map of the World is the Product of a Large-Scale Volunteer Effort
When Brian “Beej” Hall first heard about an ambitious volunteer effort to create an Internet map of every street and path in every city and village on the planet, he was hooked. At the time, the nascent effort had only a few American members, and the U.S. map was essentially a digital terra incognita. Just a few years later, the Berkeley software engineer is editing digital maps so precise they include drinking fountains and benches in the Bay Area parks where he hikes, and the mapping community has swelled to more than 240,000 global members. The effort, OpenStreetMap, is a kind of grass-roots Wikipedia for maps that is transforming how map data are collected, shared and used — from the desktop to smart phones to car navigation. Read the full LA Times article here.

Happy Monday!

Tags: Air Force, Air force Spy Satellite, Clapper as DNI, Clapper Confirmation, General Clapper, GEOINT, got geoint?, Hyperspectral Satellite, Prototype Hyperspectral Satellite, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF