MEDIA FEAR COMING RULES ON SATELLITES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706530003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 6, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ILLEGIB
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706530003-1
ON PAGE
Media fear
coming rules
on satellites
'H WGTON TIMES
The Commerce Department is set
to issue rules soon giving the govern-
ment broad power to restrict on na-
tional security grounds the opera-
tion of commercial satellites that
collect detailed pictures of the
earth.
The regulations, which are almost
completed, would allow the govern-
ment to deny licenses for the opera-
tion of so-called "imaging" satellites,
or to order picture-taking by such a
satellite stopped if the Defense or
State departments decide national
security or foreign policy objectives
are jeopardized.
The regulations have sparked con-
cern from representatives of the
news media. Use of detailed satellite
images on newscasts and in newspa-
pers is increasing.
Other observers fear the reg-
.ilanons.kill drive the business of
remote ,cosine satellites - as they
arc formally called - overseas when
the privately operated U.S. LAND
SAT satellite system faces financial
difficulties.
fhc Pentagon argued in com-
ments on the Commerce proposal
chat the Detense Secretary should
have "maximum discretion" in de-
'erminin_ '.khen a national security
threat exists. :A senior Defense De-
partment official said that denial of
a Gccnse ur old not constitute prior
'. traur of the press. but rather a
ell. l ''Iim:tanon of access" to reg-
:,latcd facilities.
I !;akc prohlems with limitation
,it access:' said Peter Zimmerman.
"enior c(?ociate at the Carnegie En-
di )%i. nient t? International Peace. "I
hake problems %k ith prior restraint.
And I have great prohlems with a
tcchmcal letter that will drive busi-
ncss ottshore:"
.Assuming no further changes, the
tries represent a defeat for the me-
dia representatives. who have fought
it Tong-running battle to modify the
proposed regulations on First
.\mendment grounds.
The rules, they contend, should in-
clude specific standards to judge
when the nation's security is
threatened. such as the standard set
down in the Pentagon Papers case.
In that case, an attempt to block the
WASHINGTON TIMES
6 March 1987
publication of nighty classified gov-
ernment ii ,,uments. the Supreme
Cou:; ruled that prior restraint is
justified only when disclosure of in-
formation "will surely result in di-
rect, immediate and irreparable
damage to our nation or its people."
The Commerce Department pro-
cedures for implementing the 1984
landsat .\ct. ~k hick still must be ap-
proved by top officials there and at
the i itfice of Management and Bud-
,ct. contain no such standards.
We haven't given up hope on this
to' ce. . said Robert J. Aamoth at-
torney for the Radio-Television
Nciks Directors .Association. "But
we have to admit at this point, it
doesn't look good."
Both RTNDA and NBC. Inc., have
argued for the clearer guidelines.
Mr. Aamoth said the proposed
regulations could lead to satellite
owners being barred from collect-
ing or distributing images during
newsworthy events, such as last
year's disaster at the Chernobyl nu-
clear power plant in the Soviet
Union.
"The prospect of something like
that happening could have a definite
chilling effect on any media in-
volvement with remote-sensing," he
said.
In addition to Chernobyl. news
accounts have shown satellite im-
ages of the Soviet naval base at Mur-
mansk. Libyan airfields after last
year's U.S. airstrike and New York
Harbor during the Statue of Liberty
centennial celebrations. The useful-
ness of such images has raised inter-
est in building a costly "MEDIA-
SAT" spacecraft to collect images
specifically for the news.
Although military and intelli-
gence officials have rarely ad-
dressed the topic, the increasingly
detailed pictures from commercial
spacecraft have caused them con-
sternation.
Gen. Robert T. Herres, newly ap-
pointed vice chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said at a recent space
symposium that media use of sat-
ellite imagery is inevitable. But Gen.
Herres, then chief of the U.S. Space
Command. said the more sophisti-
cated imaging capabilities desired
by some sections of the media are
"not inevitable."
The draft regulations, according
to one source who has seen them,
allow the Commerce Department,
through its National Oceanic and At.
mospheric Administration, to order
"immediate termination" of a satel-
lite operation that the Pentagon de-
termines "clearly poses a threat to
the national security or which the
secretary of state determines
clearly poses a threat to the interna-
tional obligations of the United
States"
A satellite owner's request for a
hearing on the i,.uc "will not delay
immediate termination.- they state.
In a Jan. 22 letter to NOAA of-
ficials, however. Defense Deputy"
Undersecretary for Policy Craig
Alderman said the Pentagon should
state why it objects to a satellite li-
cense application He also suggested
that its recommendations be made
public and show where classified
material, it any. had been deleted.
rhe dialogue with the govern-
ment on this has been productive:'
said Mark E. Brender. an ABC News
assignment editor and leading pro-
ponent of media use of satellite im-
agery. "However, it appears the final
rules will not address the standards
by which the government will judge
what is national security or not:'
Mr. Alderman has asked a senior
White House intelligence committee
to "review the security aspects of
the civil remote sensing program."
One aspect of the regrew may be a
secret 19'8 presidential directive
limiting non-military satellites to 10-
meter resolution.
Resolution - the size of oblect1
which can be distinguished in an im-
ge -yy 30 meter- for I-.a\DS.~7
and_met rs in b a ?k-33IIS_ h.i11_
for the French SPOT I satellite. The
resolution of CIA intelli ence-
gathering
he about two inches,
Pentagon officials could not he
reached for comment yesterday and
Richard .1. Smith, a State Depart-
ment official ?ho also argued for
strong government authority over
the atellites. declined further com-
mei;t :hrough a spokesman.
.\ related concern over the pro-
posed regulations is their potential
to curb the embryonic U.S. commer-
cial remote-sensing industry.
Congress and the White House
have declined to release funds for
u;Idin,J more sophisticated LAND
'.\I p acecraft. Meanwhile. Japan
last month launched its own
remote- 'spacecraft. JIOS-1.
'Commercializing remote-
sensing is not a unilateral I U.S.I gov-
ernment policy anymore." said
David S..Julyan, vice president of
sales and marketing for SPOT Image
Corp.. which distributes data from
the French spacecraft. "The equilib-
rium has been adjusted:'
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706530003-1