[ColdOne]

Photo of logo at link

[Gamecock]

Here now:

[LeoWindhorse]

“NROL-39 is represented by the octopus, a versatile, adaptable, and highly intelligent creature.

It is also spineless

[Responsibility2nd]

In your face irony. Gotta love it.

I must adamit - I have not heard of the NRO. I wiki’d it. Small Agency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office

3,000 employees. $10 Billion budget.

[diverteach]

So why this NRO?
Isn’t this what the CIA and NSA are for?

[neodad]

And we used to joke about all your base belong to us. So quaint....

[Bobalu]

They have 4, perhaps 5, of the extremely large geosynchronous satellites with large dish antennas looking down at the ground. These things are 350ft across. One of the NRO guys quiped at a recent launch of one "It's the biggest satellite ever launched" They unfold like giant umbrellas. You can see them as a bright dot that is stationary against the moving background of stars..takes just an average amateur telescope.

[mountainlion]

Link this with the singularity theory about when the machines can act independently and make decisions and you have new kind of new world order.

[dfwgator]

Electric Eye - Judas Priest

Up here in space
I’m looking down on you
My lasers trace
Everything you do

You think you’ve private lives
Think nothing of the kind
There is no true escape
I’m watching all the time

I’m made of metal
My circuits gleam
I am perpetual
I keep the country clean

I’m elected electric spy
I’m protected electric eye

Always in focus
You can’t feel my stare
I zoom into you
You don’t know I’m there

I take a pride in probing all your secret moves
My tearless retina takes pictures that can prove

I’m made of metal
My circuits gleam
I am perpetual
I keep the country clean

Electric eye, in the sky
Feel my stare, always there
There’s nothing you can do about it
Develop and expose
I feed upon your every thought
And so my power grows

I’m made of metal
My circuits gleam
I am perpetual
I keep the country clean

Protected. Detective. Electric eye

[coloradan]

Is: protecting individual liberties in the context of a limited government, beyond their reach? I hope not, but sometimes I have my doubts.

[2ndDivisionVet]

When I was in the service, just the name “National Reconnaissance Office” was classified top secret.