"Bob Ackley -> Jeff Binkley"  wrote in
news:31516$POL_INC{at}JamNNTPd:

 BA> Decades ago I was given rather broad access to 'special compartmented
 BA> information,'
 BA> which was kept in a limited access vault in a sub-basement of SAC
 BA> headquarters. In the two years I had that access I never bothered to
 BA> check any of it out.  When I
 BA> was debriefed I had to ask what some of the stuff was and they just
 BA> said 'you don't
 BA> need to know.'  I still have no idea what it is I'm not supposed to be
 BA> talking about... 

 BA> I did have access to satellite photography (in those days KH-9 and
 BA> KH-11) for most of my
 BA> tour at SAC, but I only looked at a little of it (and I don't know
 BA> what I was looking at).  I
 BA> was never all that interested in the subject.  Whether or not our
 BA> satellites can read a license plate or tell if some sweet thing lying
 BA> on a beach is wearing a bathing suit I've no idea; nor do I care, it
 BA> simply isn't something that interests me.

 BA> If memory serves, the KH-9 satellites periodically spit out a film
 BA> cannister that was
 BA> retrieved (caught in mid-air) by a specially equipped C-130; when it
 BA> ran out of film
 BA> it became a piece of space junk.  I think the KH-11 was the first to
 BA> use a comm downlink rather than film cannisters - note that was over
 BA> 30 years ago...

I was just reading about a satellite that was recently launched, basically
it's an upgraded version of the ones already up there that listen to
communications, like cell phones.

Seeing as I don't have a cell phone, (don't need or want one right now,)
looks like I don't have to worry. 

--- Xnews/5.04.25