NRO spoof and deception

[paul@hawksbill.sprintmrn.com (Paul Ferguson)]

Front page story in the Washington Post, as expected, entitled, "Spy 
Unit's Spending Stuns Hill," and subtitled, "$310 Million Facility
Secretly Sprouts Up Near Dulles Airport."

Gee, I wondered what that building was.  ,-)


A couple of select quotes from the article:

"The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday charged that the
clandestine agency that manages the nation's spy satellites has concealed
from Congress the mushrooming cost of a $310 million compund it has been
secretly building near Dulles International Airport.

"President Clinton declassified the existence of the proposed headquarters
for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) yesterday after several 
senators protested to him privately that they had been kept in the dark
about the cost and scope of the project. At 1 million square feet, it is
nearly one-fourth the size of the Pentagon.

"The NRO, whose very existence was until two years ago an officially
classified secret, is jointly overseen by the CIA and the Department
of Defense. Until yesterday, the headquarters project had been publicly
described as an office complex for Rockwell International Corp., the Los
Angeles-based defense contractor."

	
"DeConcini critized the Pentagon and the CIA for not providing Congress
adequate information. The intelligence community is a culture that
'believes we don't have to account like everybody else in government,'
he said."


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- paul