But for the Iraq war, the Pentagon has left the two
U.S. companies free to sell their images to all comers -- except
representatives from countries blacklisted by the State Department. French,
Indian and Israeli companies also sell satellite imagery, none as sharp as what
the U.S competitors offer.
"The technology is migrating from the black world of
intelligence where it was shuttered for 40 years, to the white world of
commerce,'' said Space Imaging's Mark Brender.
Journalists have used it to buy shots of U.S.
military encampments in the Kuwaiti desert or the al-Udeid air base in Qatar
where U.S. generals direct the war.
For that matter, Space Imaging will sell pictures of
Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Virginia or the secret military
installation in Nevada known as Area 51.
The only off-limits spot on the planet isn't even
inside the United States. In 1997, Congress blocked U.S. companies from
photographing Israel at a resolution higher than 2 meters.
"We can image every other place in the world,"
Brender said.
For example, Ikonos' 2-meter pictures of Israel's
Dimona nuclear reactor aren't nearly as sharp as its .82-meter photos of North
Korea's Yongbyon reactor. Both sites are associated with clandestine nuclear
weapons development and are widely sought images.
Satellite photos with resolutions below a meter allow
people to see cars or recognize individual homes. Military planners can use
coordinates from such maps to calibrate satellite-guided weapons to destroy
individual buildings.
But precious few militaries outside the United States
can make use of guided missiles or bombs. Most, like the Iraqis, make do with
merely lobbing them in the general direction of a target.
"They're not doing precision strikes on (U.S.)
locations," said Rand technology analyst John Baker. ``They simply lack the
capabilities.''
Also, satellite photos are too old for battle
planning. By the time Iraq could get an image of, say, U.S. encampments in
Kuwait, the American forces could be gone from that location.
At Space Imaging, a rush order for a new image takes
between seven and 59 days, Brender said.
As Ikonos circles the globe from north to south,
photographing the earth from 423 miles away, clouds and dust sometimes obscure
the ground, delaying delivery of an image.
With hundreds of journalists reporting the U.S.
military's every move, Saddam would be better off simply watching TV, Brender
said.
At times, the commercial images have embarrassed the
Pentagon.
In September, GlobalSecurity.org posted images of
expansions underway at Qatar's al-Udeid air base, uncloaking the U.S. military
buildup in the region.
In November, the Web site displayed photos of the
curious domed shelters of the B-2 "stealth" bombers on the restricted Indian
Ocean island of Diego Garcia, a British territory that prohibits visitors.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wasn't happy with
the Qatar images being splashed over the Web, Pike said. But the Pentagon had
apparently planned for the possibility because the photos show gear obscured by
camouflage.
Despite such revelations, the U.S. government has
become a huge customer.
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet ordered
government agencies to buy commercial imagery for mapping tasks, leaving the
military's spy satellites to handle tougher intelligence jobs.
To request an Ikonos photo of a particular spot on
the globe, it costs $3,000 to focus its camera on your geo-coordinates and
another $29 per square kilometer of imagery.
Commercial satellite pictures aren't as detailed as
the military's.
Digital Globe's top resolution is .6 meter. Space
Imaging's is .82 meter.
Military satellites can see objects around 20 inches
or smaller, but the precise resolution is classified.
In January, the Pentagon's satellite spy agency, the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency, signed a five-year deal to buy as much as
$500 million in imagery from Space Imaging and Digital Globe, Brender
said.
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