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U.S. Buys Exclusive Rights to Satellite Imagery of War Zone
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
The Associated Press

... the government is also denying the public the use of an important tool for oversight of its activities ...

WASHINGTON -- AP
The U.S. military is paying for the exclusive rights to commercial satellite imagery of Afghanistan even though its own satellites are thought to take far better pictures.

This could serve two purposes: to provide an extra eye on Afghanistan and to prevent anyone else from peeking at the war zone, including the news media.

The images of the Ikonos satellite, among the best available to the public, will add to those collected by military satellites and airplanes, said Joan Mears, a spokeswoman for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

Mears declined to discuss how much the government is paying for the pictures, only saying that the agency has paid for exclusive access to the area involved in Operation Enduring Freedom, the military code name for the strikes in Afghanistan.
(More: Freedom Forum News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Gee, I guess the media will just have to do it the “old fashioned way.” Been a while since I’ve seen a genuine reporter in a battle dress uniform. Today’s media personnel seem under the impression that armchair reporting is a right under the First Amendment. Well, sometimes ya just gotta get up and earn your pay to find stuff out.

X^D
Dan