project keyhole cia

The Atomic Energy Commission also began work on miniaturized nuclear power sources for the vehicles at that time. This 3,000 kg Low Altitude Surveillance Platform developed by Lockheed flew just 75 miles up (Coronas orbited at 100 miles) and operated for nearly two decades from 1964 to 1984. In-Q-Tel, a venture capital fund run by the CIA on behalf of the military and intelligence community, made a “strategic investment” in Keyhole in February 2003, a month before the US launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. It lasted two years. Of the 12 flights attempted, however, only five successfully put the unit in orbit. So why is the CIA invoking state secrets and national security arguments when asked to divulge a decade-old conversation regarding Google’s acquisition of a small CIA investment? In addition to keeping tabs on Soviet air capabilities, Gambit was also designed to photograph the spacecraft around it. The first such program was the Corona project, a codeword itself code named "Discoverer" for the public explanation of why the government was firing a rocket into space (a rare event in the late 1950s that would have attracted a curious public and international scrutiny). Of course, much of the development of our national reconnaissance capabilities is still shrouded in veils of classification. For instance: In 2010, Google clinched a no-bid contract to supply the NGA with “geospatial visualization services.” The NGA argued that it couldn’t open up the contract to competitors like Microsoft because it had no choice: The US government had invested so much effort and resources into Google’s mapping and geospatial technology, tailoring it to its specific needs, that the Pentagon and Intelligence Community could at this point only use Google products. Until Feb. 13th, 2019. In-Q-Tel, a venture capital fund run by the CIA on behalf of the military and intelligence community, made a “strategic investment” in Keyhole in February 2003, a month before the … This cozy relationship extends into the 2020 Elections. The In-Q-Tel alliance has put the Agency back at the leading edge of technology”. The most obvious question is: What prompted the acquisition? It has clinched a near monopoly on government battlefield mapping tech, outfitted the CIA and NSA with advanced search capabilities, co-invested in spy satellites and battlefield robots with the Pentagon, partnered with traditional military contractors like Lockheed Martin, and has increasingly filled its executive ranks with top Pentagon officials from the U.S. Army, Air Force Intelligence, and the CIA. Press reports made limited references to the agency as far back as 1971, but it wasn't until the Deputy Secretary of Defense revealed the NRO in 1992, was it ever formally discussed by the DoD. The big question for a lot of people is: "What can they see?" The brand new Skylab had just launched when its meteoroid shield broke loose and damaged the space station. The fact of the existence or nonexistence of requested records is currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods information that is protected from disclosure by section 6 of the CIA Act of 1949, as amended, and section 102A(i)(l) of the National Security Act of 1947, as amended. Keyhole Inc also had one major client base: US military and intelligence agencies. Which prompted Wikileaks to point out that, when it comes to sharing data with the government, Google is in fact way worse than Twitter... @csoghoian Google handed over more data, because its business model is based on collecting that data and mining it. I just got a very interesting letter from the Central Intelligence Agency. During the Cold War, accurately ascertaining the USSR's military capabilities was a top US priority—as well it should have been given that we had as many as 21,000 nuclear warheads pointed at each other during that time. The program began in 1959 at the Onizuka Air Force Station, ran until 1972, and was declassified in 1995 by President Clinton. It would then either drop the roll as the Coronas did or automatically develop the photographs, scan them, and transmit the images back to Earth in as little as 20 minutes through the Film Read-Out GAMBIT (FROG) feature (though after $2 billion dollars and nearly a decade of development the 1971 administration nix(on)ed it). Outside of the Corona program, America's initial attempts at satellite photo-reconnaissance failed more often than not. The acquisition would have gone unnoticed, had it not been for one not-so-tiny detail: Keyhole Inc was part-owned by the CIA and the "National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency" (NGA), a sister agency to the NSA. Google Earth originated as EarthViewer 3D from CIA-funded company Keyhole, which Google acquired in 2004. Was there any internal discussion in the company about the benefits and pitfalls of absorbing a startup so closely tied with the CIA and the Pentagon? Keyhole Inc also had one major client base: US military and intelligence agencies. The 144-member family of Corona satellites—each designated Keyhole-#, or KH-#, depending on the spacecraft iteration—were produced and operated by the CIA in conjunction with the USAF and provided invaluable photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union as well as the People's Republic of China, and other Communist countries. They are typically used to take overhead photos for military missions. As former CIA director George Tenet stated in his memoirs: “…CIA identifies pressing problems, and In-Q-Tel provides the technology to address them. Keyhole Inc also had one major client base: US military and intelligence agencies. The National Reconnaissance Office declassified two previously secret spy satellite programs of the Cold War era on Sept. 17. Google had developed the software behind Google Earth by purchasing Keyhole from the CIA venture firm In-Q-Tel. 2017. The end of the Cold War certainly put a damper on reconnaissance satellite funding, as did the rise of commercial satellite technology, but it remains a staple of our intelligence gathering resources. These orbital telescopes granted an unprecedented peek over the Iron Curtain—revealing Soviet military capabilities, supply reserves, industrial sites, and more—that no ground-based spook could hope to provide. This one will be a little more involved, and take a little bit of time and planning so Im going to give it a shot. The KH-9 HEXAGON was, by all accounts, an unmitigated success with 19 of its 20 launches reaching orbit between 1971 and 1986. One of them is the CIA Act of 1949 — which basically gave the Agency the power to act in ultimate secrecy and exempted it from just about every normal government requirement. Its initial budget was a modest $108.2 million ($860 million adjusted to 2013), though that quickly increased follo… If so, what were these commitments? What is it about Keyhole and Google’s relationship with the CIA that is so sensitive and so vital to the military objectives of the United States that the mere admission of existence of these records poses a grave threat to national security? This part of the request should include all correspondence between the CIA and representatives of Google regarding Keyhole, including Keyhole software and services. Worldwide praise. Desk. The images the CIA used to find Osama bin Laden's hideout were reportedly supplied by the KENNAN. The letter did not explain why these two in particular — (b)(1) and (b)(3) — were relevant to the decision to withhold the requested information. The (b)(3) statutes upon which the CIA relies include, but are not limited to, the CIA Act of 1949…. Did it impose conditions on Google? Unlike conventional aperture cameras, the Gambit's slit camera reflected light off of a 48-inch mirror, through a slit aperture, and on to a moving length of Eastman Kodak Type 3404 film. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prevents threats to national security by collecting and analyzing intelligence data that is used in coordinating covert operations overseas. By 1954, the USAF accepted RAND's assertion that the technology was of "vital strategic interest to the United States" and officially established the US satellite program. This accident terminated the D-21 project as far as the A-12 (M-21) was concerned. anyone know what kind of plane is pictured? Very little is known about the satellite's hardware though many have speculated that its roughly the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope with a similar 2.4-meter mirror producing a six inch resolution. And while we had plenty of spies operating in Moscow, the view from overhead provided the President and his cabinet key insights into the extent of Soviet strategic capabilities which influenced defense planning and arms control negotiations. If the capsule wasn't retrieved within 48 hours, a salt plug at the bottom of the canister would dissolve and sink it. The D-21 drone was ultimately replaced by the new KH-11 Keyhole reconnaissance satellite. Initially launched as a spin-off of Intrinsic Graphics, first round funding came from a Sony venture capital fund and others, additional capital came from an NVIDIA bundling deal, from the CIA (via its Think beyond moderation. Some notable portfolio companies include Palantir, whose data mining software is used across public and private sector institutions, and Keyhole, a mapping firm acquired by Google[4]. In a press release announcing the investment a few months later, In-Q-Tel discussed Keyhole’s close collaboration with military and intelligence partners and explained that Keyhole technology was already being successfully deployed by active military forces in Iraq. That is, the mere existence nor non-existence of any documents relating to the Agency’s involvement in the sale of Keyhole to Google is itself a secret, and cannot be divulged to the public for reasons of national security. Put simply: (b)(1) exempts active military and intelligence operations, or information that can affect these operations. Only the CIA knows. Most of these images have been declassified since 2002, though sensitive areas such as government installations and most of Israel remain tightly guarded. Keyhole’s product, EarthViewer, quickly succeeded. We were harboring fears we didn't need to harbor. Because tonight we know how many missiles the enemy has and, it turned out, our guesses were way off. By KH-3, optical improvements decreased that figure to 20 feet. The first generation of HEXAGON employed a pair of f/3.0 folded Wright Camera cameras with a 60-inch focal length able to resolve objects down to 2 feet and carried four re-entry vehicles. The MDDS abstract published online at the University of Texas confirms that the rationale for the CIA-NSA project was to “provide seed money to … Date range: 1/1/2003 through 12/31/2014.”. For all of Google's posturing as the scourge of governement surveillance, the CIA’s blanket GLOMAR denial of my Freedom of Information Act request speaks very loudly to a different side of Google’s relationship with US military intelligence agencies. After Edward Snowden, it funded privacy think tanks, backed anti-NSA protests, made a big show of opposing secret wiretaps, fought secret court orders, and has done everything it can convince the public that it really really cares about privacy and cyber-democracy and is on our side in the fight against today's creeping military-surveillance society. The E-5 had a 66-inch focal length and six foot resolution covering a 9 x 46 mile area. We were building things we didn't need to build. They were fed a special Eastman Kodak 70 millimeter film that produced 170 lines per mm—more than three times the 50 lines/mm resolution earlier WWII aerial photography could compose. According to the Utah Department of Health, the outbreak in Utah was recognized on Jan. 1st. But with ever increasing film payloads, the final iteration of the KH-9 lasted 275 days in space. And so, back in May, I submitted a FOIA request to the CIA, asking for: 1) “… a copy of all correspondence (emails, letters, related documents and attachments) relating to Keyhole Inc. It came in response to a FOIA request I put in regarding a decade-old business transaction between the CIA and Google. We help you design a study to answer your business questions and create a final deliverable that is insightful, persuasive AND visually compelling. They stated that…, (b)(1) exempts from disclosure information currently and properly classified, pursuant to an Executive Order…, (b)(3) exempts from disclosure information that another federal statute protects, provided that the other federal statute either requires that the matters be withheld, or establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld. Keyhole, Inc. was founded by John Hanke (who previously worked in a “foreign affairs” position within the U.S. government). And while its existence wasn't revealed until 2011, the program dates back to the 1960s as a successor to the Corona program. Not only did the CIA deny my request, but it refused to admit or not admit that records pertaining to this transaction even existed — all in the name of national security. But instead of sending me a stack of highly redacted documents, the Agency sent me a skimpy two page response straight out of a Tom Clancy novel: it "could not confirm or deny” the existence of these records. The technology has also found new use in providing tactical information to ground troops (not having to catch film canisters with sky hooks helps). In other words: What deal did Google -- now the biggest private surveillance operation on planet earth -- make with the CIA and the NSA, which run the largest government surveillance operations? Even now, information on the early satellites is sparse and anything after 1972 is non-existent save for a few photos taken by the KH-11 satellite which were leaked to Jane's Defence Weekly in 1985. Heck, the NRO was established in 1961 and operated for three decades before the government even ever acknowledged its existence. The KH-11 KENNEN (later renamed CRYSTAL, then Evolved Enhanced CRYSTAL System, and codenamed 1010 and Key Hole) is a type of reconnaissance satellite first launched by the American National Reconnaissance Office in December 1976. Google fought in court, spent big bucks, no one knows. a keyhole is the shaped channel into which the key slides to open a locked door. Date range: from 1/1/2000 through 12/31/2006.”2) “… a copy of all correspondence (emails, letters, related documents and attachments) referring to or discussing Google’s purchase of Keyhole Inc. In its May 2, 1946 report, "Preliminary Design for an Experimental World Circling Spaceship," the Douglas Aircraft Corporation examined the potential value … There's also wide speculation that the KH-11 is the source of images declassified in the wake of the 1998 embassy bombings, as well as others of China and Russia declassified the year prior. I purchased a Century Arms built AK-74 off an INGO member as a project rifle. The CIA information officer was kind enough to include definitions of the relevant FOIA exemptions. The cryptonyms described in this article were in use at least from the 1950s to the 1980s. Important security information: This login uses cookies to provide access to the site you requested and to other protected University of Utah websites. The KH-11 KENNAN is the most advanced recon satellite to be unclassified. In-Q-Tel is notorious for investing in … Phone: (212) 889 3337 Fax: (212) 889 3341 As I’ve reported before, Google has been aggressively expanding in the lucrative military contacting market to the point where it has sold advanced military grade data products to just about every major military and intelligence agency in America. [Raytheon - NRO - FAS 1, 2 - Wiki 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - Oneonta - Images: NRO, CIA, NASA]. It explains that (b)(1) can be used to restrict access to the documents only if “the unauthorized disclosure of the information reasonably could be expected to result in damage to the national security.” Some of the information that currently falls under this provision includes: military plans and weapons systems; intelligence activities and methods; technology that impacts national security; and vulnerabilities and capabilities of systems relating to national security. By Dr Nafeez Ahmed – Insurge Intelligence: As our governments push to increase their powers, INSURGE INTELLIGENCE can now reveal the vast extent to which the US intelligence community is implicated in nurturing the web platforms we know today, for … 1155 S Oak Hills Way Salt Lake City, UT 84108 U.S.A. Gerald & Cullen Rapp 420 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10170 U.S.A. John Hanke). Therefore, your request is denied pursuant to FOIA exemptions (b)(1) and (b)(3). This was just one of many such deals. Eastman Kodak's A&O Division in Rochester, New York, produced the Gambit's primary strip camera system. Sad irony: Twitter never went to court to unseal Wikileaks order. July 1, 2015, From The Luckily, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) gives a rundown of the meaning and intended use of these exemptions in a handy guide. An investment from the CIA-backed venture firm In-Q-Tel — who said they would use Keyhole’s tech to “support United States troops in Iraq” — kept them moving. Recorded Future strips from web pages the people, places and activities they mention. That year, CIA funding was also being “quietly” funneled through the National Science Foundation to projects that might help create “new capabilities to combat terrorism through advanced technology.” The following year, Google bought the firm Keyhole, which had originally been funded by In … If it was picked up in time, the film would be transported to Rochester, New York, for processing at Eastman Kodak's Hawkeye facility. In this case, the CIA wrote to me that there are at least two -- and possibly more -- statues that exempt the documents from disclosure. As long as the intelligence justified the price tag, any cost was acceptable. Fifteen KH-11's have been launched in total—nine between 1976 and 1990 aboard Titan-3D rockets, five between 1992 and 2005 aboard Titan IVs, and the final one in 2011 aboard a Delta IV—at an estimated cost of $2.2 to 3 billion. The first Coronas carried a paltry 8,000 feet of film—per camera—though through improvements in the film chemistry and design reduced the material thickness, researchers were eventually able to double that amount. As such, the US invested vast sums of money into high-altitude research—from early "weather balloons" to the SR-71 Blackbird and U2 Dragon Lady to orbital telescopes—and established not one but three Federal agencies—the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—all in an effort to glean any speck of information that could give us an advantage. We were doing things we didn't need to do. This part of the request should include all correspondence between the CIA and representatives of Keyhole Inc (e.g. But, post-acquisition, the search giant continued selling Keyhole's underlying tech to the Pentagon and assorted US intelligence services. I usually get so wrapped up in a project that I never document anything, as I just want it done. Isn’t it good to know that the CIA … The hotspots were San Diego and Salt Lake City. It wasn't until the early 1990's that any information on these devices was declassified, after the fall of the Soviet Union brought an end to the Cold War. The CIA got back to me surprisingly quickly. The KH-6 Lanyard program was the NRO's first attempt at high definition photography but lasted just six months and three launches in 1963, two of which failed to produce images. Did Google buy Keyhole -- and take on all its military contracts and NatSec liabilities -- because it badly needed its 3D mapping technology? After the capsule discarded its heat shield at 60,000 feet, it deployed a parachute and could either be nabbed by a passing plane equipped with a claw hook (above) or land safely in the ocean where it would float for two days awaiting pickup. The cameras themselves underwent numerous upgrades as well, elongating to nine feet and incorporating panoramic Petzval f/3.5 lenses. With a focal length of 175.6 inches, a 6.3 km wide coverage area, and 3-foot resolution, the KH-8 was ideal for gathering high-resolution images of Soviet sites. In the course of investigating the book, I've been digging deeper into Google's relationship with US military industrial complex. One of the first big milestones in this transformation took place in November 2004 when Google acquired a tiny and little-known 3-D mapping startup called Keyhole Inc. Google paid an undisclosed sum for the company, immediately absorbed it, and began turning its tech into what we now know as Google Earth. They quickly put it to use monitoring military operations in … I've filed an appeal to the FOIA denial and will update this story when I hear the result. The HEXAGON … It took a few years for RAND researchers working on "Project Feedback" to figure out how a satellite would even function—this was a brand new technological concept, mind you—but by 1953 they had not only devised the general characteristics and capabilities of a reconnaissance satellite but had begun to develop many of the components as well, like the television system and altimeter. In-Q-Tel is notorious for investing in Keyhole , the technology that later became Google Earth. In essence, the CIA’s (b)(3) is what's known as a GLOMAR response, named after the agency's refusal, in the mid-1970s, to confirm or deny the existence of a secret boat called the Glomar Explorer built to retrieve a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. Fortunately, we have a process explicitly designed to allow the public to find out what the government is up to behind closed doors: A Freedom of Information Act request, or FOIA. Caution: Before entering your uNID or password, verify that the address in the URL bar of your browser is directing you to a University of Utah web site. RCFP explains that it allows the CIA to deny record requests that are exempted from disclosure by laws that are beyond FOIA. A relationship that the CIA wants us to believe that, should it become public, could seriously harm national security and put all of our lives at risk. Forgotten in all this is the hepatitis outbreak in 2017. Thirty-eight D-21s were built, with 21 expended. The Hidden Connection Of the CIA and Google. One of the key, early backers of Keyhole was a firm called In-Q-Tel. They also a began surviving longer. The ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] information gathered helps steer national policy decisions for everything from mundane trade negotiations to the blackest of ops. When the Army and Navy couldn't agree on who would have control over the orbital technology, it was assigned to the newly-formed USAF in 1947. Satellite technology is, by far, the most expensive ISR method at the US's disposal but also the most effective, its results well worth the billions of dollars spent. I'm trying to pinpoint as best I can the moment when Google began transitioning from being a consumer-oriented Internet search company into the hybrid military-intelligence contractor that it is today. Keyhole seemed a perfect fit. Most spy satellites have very limited life spans—two to three months—and once they're out of film they have no further purpose. The second exemption (b)(3) is equally broad. 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