The Bush administration plans to bolster the flagging
U.S. space industry by increasing orders for remote-sensing imagery of
so-called rogue states in the Middle East.
Industry sources said the administration has relayed assurances to
leading U.S. firms that the American intelligence community, the State
Department and the Defense Department will require increased data on the
missile and weapons of mass destruction programs in such countries as Iran,
Libya and Syria. The sources said U.S. commercial imagery will be used to
increase monitoring of these countries while most of the military's spy
satellites are focused on such countries as Russia, Iraq and North Korea.
Space industry executives have complained that Washington was
restricting the sale of remote-sensing images to foreign clients,
particularly in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on New York
and Washington.
The restrictions were imposed amid concerns that terrorist
groups or their state sponsors could order images of U.S. installations or
interests in the Middle East to launch attacks.
The Boeing Co. predicted loses for its satellite operations in 2002
as a result of a drop in commercial demand. Earlier, shares of Loral Space &
Communications Ltd. dropped to a seven-year low amid lack of demand from
telecommunications providers for its satellites and services.
"The satellite business and the launch business is very, very poor and
it's driven by a very poor market," Boeing's Jim Albaugh, head of the
company's space and communications unit, said. "Commercial space will not
turn around for several years, if ever."
But last month, the Bush administration ordered the CIA and other
agencies in the intelligence community to increase orders from commercial
space imaging providers. The order came in a memorandum from CIA Director
George Tenet and is expected to boost sales by such companies as Space
Imaging and DigitalGlobe, which operate satellites that can relay
high-resolution images of less than one-square meter.
The memorandum said the intelligence community intends to use U.S. firms
to provide timely data on WMD and missile proliferation. The data would be
used to increase Washington's monitoring of such programs as Iran's Shihab-3
intermediate-range missile, Syria's Scud D medium-range missile and Libya's
efforts to develop a No-Dong derivative with a range of about 1,000
kilometers.
"My goal in establishing this policy is to stimulate, as quickly as
possible, and maintain, for the foreseeable future, a robust U.S. commercial
space imagery industry," Tenet said in the June 7 directive.
The CIA directive was issued after the administration was criticized by
critics in Congress for failing to provide timely information on key missile
and WMD developments in the Middle East over the past six months. They
include the failure to immediately report to Congress the launch of the
Shihab-3 missile on May 1.
Analysts said the increased use of commercial images on WMD facilities
would also result in greater access by non-governmental groups to eventually
obtain these images. Most of the time, satellite firms make images available
at much lower prices when they are placed in their archives.
