It is possible that the exclusive rights to the Ikonos images are intended to prevent the media from disseminating images of bomb damage
Apparently, the U.S. Department of Defense is buying up images from the Ikonos satellite, which has been operated by Space Imaging since 1999, of Afghanistan and the United States. from the military operation area of "Enduring Freedom" makes. In principle, Ikonos could provide images in real time.
U.S. military only shows images of successful bombings with no human casualties
According to Space Imaging, on 7. October, the beginning of the bombing of Afghanistan, a contract was signed with the Pentagon for the exclusive rights to the satellite images. The price the company is asking for the images was not disclosed, but it is said to be several million dollars. While Space Imaging can no longer sell the images to other interested parties, the U.S. military is preventing unwanted images that Ikonos takes of the battlefield from being released to the public.
The images of the satellite have a resolution of up to one meter. It is not known what resolution the images from military satellites can reach. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) suspects that the images may have a resolution of up to 10 cm. At least six U.S. spy satellites can provide images of Afghanistan, as recently as the 12th of December. In October, the National Reconnaissance Office launched a new spy satellite into orbit. On 5. October and on 9. September new military satellites had already been launched.
Whether the purchase of the satellite imagery is intended to supplement the information provided by the military satellites is open to question. However, Aftergood believes that the Ikonos could also function as a security satellite, providing images with a lower resolution, which are also necessary for surveillance. Thus the other satellites could be relieved.
It is more likely that the U.S. Department of Defense wants to control what images are released to the public. For example, media could buy high-resolution images showing damage caused by U.S. bombs. Now the U.S. military has a monopoly on it. With a resolution of one meter, even people who have been killed can still be recognized.
American satellite operators must keep a log of all images taken, maintain a list of customers, and turn off cameras when necessary for national security. Of course, this requirement does not apply to satellite imagery providers in other countries. Since the U.S. military did not resort to the means of interdiction, but sought to solve the problem with money, presumably the reason for this could not be solely that the Taliban regime was able to obtain knowledge of military positions or targets through this, unless the seizure was already intended to protect in advance the manovers of a possible ground offensive.
More likely. that the U.S. military wants to keep control of the exact satellite images and thus can only present those to the media and the public that are desired. Even though the military had already admitted to several civilian deaths and the shelling of civilian buildings, media could use satellite imagery to quickly search for additional casualties or damage. uberdies, so John Pike von Global Security gegenuber dem Guardian, hatte es moglich sein konnen, wenn ein Verbot ergangen ware, dass Nachrichtenmedien eine Klage gegen die Regierung wegen Zensur und Einschrankung der Meinungsfreiheit eingereicht hatten. The tactically better way is certainly the acquisition of exclusive rights, that is, an entirely economic process.
In any case, the Guardian claims that the contract with Space Imaging was signed last Thursday with retroactive effect to the 7. October was completed after reports of the village of Karam near Jalabad allegedly destroyed by U.S. bombs (bounty for U.S. soldiers – Bin Ladin’s network dismantled after Bush). More than 200 people are said to have been killed here. In a propaganda offensive, the Taliban regime invited Western journalists to view the destruction. None of the journalists could or would confirm whether the damage was actually caused by US bombs.
Tomorrow, the launch of another satellite, whose camera can take high resolution images, is scheduled to take place. DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird sets new standards for commercial satellite imagery with a resolution of half a meter. Even before the launch, Chuck Herring of DigitalGlobe had said that the U.S. government would use the commercial images in addition to those from the military satellites. On the other hand, the launch of OrbImage’s OrbView-4 satellite on 21 September was a success. September failed. The camera of this satellite had provided black and white images with a resolution of one meter and color images with a resolution of four meters.