homersapien 11,381 Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 What's your excuse this time Salty? Fake news? https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweet-photo-usa-224-advanced-spy-satellite-2019-9 President Donald Trump released a photo Friday from a classified intelligence briefing in a tweet taunting Iran after another failed Iranian rocket launch. The photo appears to have come from a classified US surveillance asset, a KH-11 satellite known as USA-224. The satellite is one of the US's most secretive assets, and experts say the photo Trump tweeted could be a windfall for hostile adversaries like Russia and China. The capabilities of these satellites are closely guarded secrets, and people have been sent to prison for leaking photos from them. "We had a photo and I released it, which I have the absolute right to do," Trump, who has ultimate declassification authority as president, said after releasing the photo. Analysts think the image President Donald Trump tweeted out Friday from a classified briefing to taunt Iran came from one of the US's most advanced satellites. Specifically, the photo is believed to have come from a US KH-11 spy satellite called USA-224. "These are high resolution optical satellites that resemble the Hubble Space Telescope but look down to Earth instead of to the heavens," Marco Langbroek, a Dutch expert who tracks satellites, wrote recently. Trump's tweet came a day after an Iranian rocket designed to carry satellites into space exploded on the launchpad, NPR reported. Commercial satellite imagery of the blast was made publicly available after the incident, but the photo in Trump's tweet was of a much higher resolution and better quality, leaving experts flabbergasted. "I've never seen anything like this before," Dave Schmerler, the leading expert on open-source imagery analysis who analyzed photos provided to NPR by Planet Labs, told Insider's Alex Lockie. "I know that [the US military has] amazing capabilities, but I don't know what this is." Read more: Trump may have revealed US military secrets by tweeting a photo to taunt Iran —Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019 Cees Bassa, a professional astronomer who works for Astron, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, was among the first to suggest that based on the features of the launchpad in the photo and the positioning of the camera, the image most likely came from the USA-224. Michael Thompson, a Purdue University graduate student studying astrodynamics and spacecraft navigation, also used publicly available data to determine that the USA-224 passed over the Iranian space center on Thursday, Spaceflight Now reported. Bassa explained that these satellites, known as Keyhole satellites, "are believed to produce the sharpest images of the Earth's surface." Langbroek was also able to simulate the view from the USA-224, and it was a match to the photo Trump tweeted out. "It is a very good match so there is no doubt in my mind that it is an image taken by USA-224," Langbroek wrote on Twitter. —Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) August 31, 2019 Read more: Intelligence veterans are pulling their hair out over Trump's 'outrageous' and 'moronic' decision to tweet out a photo from a classified briefing Melissa Hanham, an expert in satellite imagery, told NPR she was initially skeptical that a photo of that quality could have come from a satellite. "When I saw the image, it was so crystal clear and high-resolution that I did not believe it could come from a satellite," she said, acknowledging that the latest analysis was convincing and suggested that the USA-224 was "very likely" the source of the photo. Intelligence veterans have suggested that the president's tweet may be a windfall for adversaries, even if the photo in the tweet appeared to be a photo of a photo. "One doesn't use intel for the purposes of taunting. The Russians and the Chinese will be very happy to study this," Robert Deitz, a former top lawyer at the CIA and the National Security Agency, told Insider. "I imagine adversaries are going to take a look at this image and reverse-engineer it," Hanham told NPR. Defending his decision last week, Trump told reporters, "We had a photo and I released it, which I have the absolute right to do." But former officials stressed that even though, as president, Trump has the authority to declassify anything he wants, he was still expected to act with discretion. John Sipher, a former CIA clandestine-services officer who spent 28 years at the agency, told Insider that Trump's release of the image was "consistent with his disdain for foreign policy and intelligence expertise." He added: "If he sees an immediate personal or political benefit, he does not feel any need to follow rules, regulations, protocol, or even laws." Bruce Klinger, a former CIA and DIA imagery analyst, posted on Twitter: "I still remember being warned about carefully controlling top secret information 'whose unauthorized disclosure could result in exceptionally grave danger to the nation' and the penalties associated with violating our responsibilities." The true capabilities of the $2 billion KH-11 spy satellites are closely guarded secrets, and people who have leaked those secrets have paid a price for it. In the late 1970s, the former CIA employee William Kampiles was sentenced to 40 years in prison for espionage after he stole an instruction manual for the KH-11 satellites and sold it to the Soviets. In the 1980s, Samuel L. Morison, a Navy intelligence analyst, was sentenced to prison time for leaking three classified KH-11 photos to the press. 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AU64 10,122 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 Should have used Hillary's private computer server....nobody would have cared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevon67 2,368 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 51 minutes ago, AU64 said: Should have used Hillary's private computer server....nobody would have cared. Stare Decisis, thanks Hilary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTiger 12,916 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 It’s Hillary’s fault! Trump is strangely her puppet! 😆 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Sue 325 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 Funny that the words "likely" and "appears" are used meaning it may not be fact. And it should be noted that any POTUS can declassify anything he wants to. But haters wake up every day with Trump in their head and rush to post anything negative they can find to start their day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTiger 12,916 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 3 minutes ago, Tiger Sue said: Funny that the words "likely" and "appears" are used meaning it may not be fact. Honest folks tend to admit uncertainty if less than 100%, even when all available evidence points in one direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Sue 325 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 17 minutes ago, TexasTiger said: Honest folks tend to admit uncertainty if less than 100%, even when all available evidence points in one direction. But good journalists don't publish such articles unless it is a certainty, especially on such a sensitive topic involving a POTUS. And the OP didn't make any caveats noting any uncertainties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU64 10,122 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 I think that some posters are suffering from a mental illness.....no truly happy or mentally stable person would spend so much time beating their heads against a wall or reading and researching a person they hate. JMO but the level of TDS has gone way beyond just playful chat and ragging back and forth. The level of hatred expressed by some folks is downright scary and almost mirrors some of the Facebook hatred posted by recent mass shooters and suspects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTiger 12,916 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 2 hours ago, Tiger Sue said: But good journalists don't publish such articles unless it is a certainty, especially on such a sensitive topic involving a POTUS. And the OP didn't make any caveats noting any uncertainties. Journalism, scholarship or any other search for truth has never been limited to only those things that one currently has evidence of 100% certainty. You lay out the available evidence in a straight forward way that admits the unknowns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Sue 325 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 So in such "news" one is guilty unless PROVEN inocent? And I didn't see any unknowns listed in the OP. No wonder Trump calls a lot of stuff fake news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 4 hours ago, Tiger Sue said: Funny that the words "likely" and "appears" are used meaning it may not be fact. And it should be noted that any POTUS can declassify anything he wants to. But haters wake up every day with Trump in their head and rush to post anything negative they can find to start their day. "Anything" negative? Compromising the countries security apparatus for no apparent reason isn't just "anything". And you can count on it as being fact. What it is and how it was taken can be determined technically. And what do you expect the intelligence community to do, confirm it? How naive can you be? Had Obama - or any other Democratic president had done this you would be screaming for impeachment. But you care more about your Dear Leader than you do your country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 3 hours ago, Tiger Sue said: But good journalists don't publish such articles unless it is a certainty, especially on such a sensitive topic involving a POTUS. And the OP didn't make any caveats noting any uncertainties. Trump's tweet and the photo are out there, thanks to Trump. This is not the media's doing. US official confirms that Trump tweeted out a picture from a classified intelligence briefing https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweeted-classified-intelligence-briefing-photo-2019-8 A US official told CNBC that a photo of an Iranian launchpad that President Donald Trump tweeted Friday afternoon came from an intelligence briefing Trump received earlier that day. "The United State of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran," Trump tweeted with the attached the photo. "I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One." The photo raised immediate red flags among national-security experts. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A US official told CNBC on Friday that a photo of an Iranian launchpad that President Donald Trump tweeted out in the afternoon came from an intelligence briefing Trump received earlier in the day. The picture was attached to a tweet in which Trump said the US was not involved in the failure of an Iranian rocket launch on Thursday. "The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran," Trump tweeted. "I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One." Here's the photo Trump attached to the tweet: Donald Trump/Twitter Iran's rocket launch failed and blew up on the pad at a space center in Iran, an Iranian official said. A US official also confirmed the news. Shortly after Trump made his statement, military and national-security experts began sounding the alarm that the president likely tweeted out classified intelligence. —Ilan Goldenberg (@ilangoldenberg) August 30, 2019 —Melissa Hanham (@mhanham) August 30, 2019 —Shane Harris (@shaneharris) August 30, 2019 —Evan Hill (@evanchill) August 30, 2019 —Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) August 30, 2019 —Shashank Joshi (@shashj) August 30, 2019 —Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) August 30, 2019 "I think I just got flexed on by the president," David Schmerler, a leading expert on open-source imagery analysis, told Business Insider of the image. Schmerler had spent hours the night before analyzing the widely available pictures of the failed launch but was blown away by the quality of Trump's image. "I've never seen anything like this before," he said. "I know that [the US military has] amazing capabilities, but I don't know what this is." Insider reached out to the White House and the National Security Council and asked for confirmation that the photo was of the Iranian launchpad, which the classification level of the photo was, and whether it was taken inside a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), at which photos are not permitted. Neither immediately responded to the request for comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Sue 325 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 ^^^^^^^so I suppose he declassified it which is his prerogative. So what's your problem except hate and him occupying your head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTiger 12,916 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 9 hours ago, Tiger Sue said: ^^^^^^^so I suppose he declassified it which is his prerogative. So what's your problem except hate and him occupying your head. Here’s a problem: https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-find-top-secret-us-surveillance-satellite-thanks-to-a-tweet-leak/amp?__twitter_impression=true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUDub 11,151 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 11 hours ago, Tiger Sue said: ^^^^^^^so I suppose he declassified it which is his prerogative. So what's your problem except hate and him occupying your head. Find it kind of funny that you seem to think discussing the goings on with the president on the POLITICS FORUM constitutes "occupying your head." Seems to have become you and Johnny's stock non-contribution to the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Sue 325 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 2 hours ago, TexasTiger said: Here’s a problem: https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-find-top-secret-us-surveillance-satellite-thanks-to-a-tweet-leak/amp?__twitter_impression=true This is hilarious. Do you not think lots of folks can't see all the satellites in orbit besides astronomers? Some like the space station can be seen with the naked eye. Now knowing what they are and their capability is is a different story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTiger 12,916 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 58 minutes ago, AUDub said: Find it kind of funny that you seem to think discussing the goings on with the president on the POLITICS FORUM constitutes "occupying your head." Seems to have become you and Johnny's stock non-contribution to the forum. Nails it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 On 9/5/2019 at 11:05 AM, AU64 said: I think that some posters are suffering from a mental illness.....no truly happy or mentally stable person would spend so much time beating their heads against a wall or reading and researching a person they hate. JMO but the level of TDS has gone way beyond just playful chat and ragging back and forth. The level of hatred expressed by some folks is downright scary and almost mirrors some of thet Facebook hatred posted by recent mass shooters and suspects. Nothing to say about the actual subject I see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 13 hours ago, Tiger Sue said: ^^^^^^^so I suppose he declassified it which is his prerogative. So what's your problem except hate and him occupying your head. He arbitrarily and mindlessly exposed US classified information for a petty reason. But he's the POTUS, so I suppose one could say he has the right to "declassify" it if one was trying to excuse such irresponsible behavior. But I would suggest that anyone who made such an pathetic excuse is the one who has a serious psychological problem, not to mention a total contempt for the countries best interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 3 hours ago, TexasTiger said: Here’s a problem: https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-find-top-secret-us-surveillance-satellite-thanks-to-a-tweet-leak/amp?__twitter_impression=true I'm sure that satellite has now moved up to the top of the targeting list for every country with anti-sat capabilities, which currently includes Russia, China and India. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Tiger Sue said: This is hilarious. Do you not think lots of folks can't see all the satellites in orbit besides astronomers? Some like the space station can be seen with the naked eye. Now knowing what they are and their capability is is a different story. Duuuuuuuh.... But now everyone knows the capabilities of at least one, huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japantiger 4,051 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 23 hours ago, TexasTiger said: Journalism, scholarship or any other search for truth has never been limited to only those things that one currently has evidence of 100% certainty. You lay out the available evidence in a straight forward way that admits the unknowns. Except climate change, of course...that you can't present evidence on...you know, consensus and all that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japantiger 4,051 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Genius. Let them know we know everything. Veiled hint that we were actually responsible. And certainly had the capability to know exactly what they are doing so they can't lie with impunity. Sort of reminds me of something a democrat president once did when someone else was lying about their missile capability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 45 minutes ago, japantiger said: Except climate change, of course...that you can't present evidence on...you know, consensus and all that. That's the most ignorant thing you've ever said on these forums, which says a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,381 Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 25 minutes ago, japantiger said: Genius. Let them know we know everything. Veiled hint that we were actually responsible. And certainly had the capability to know exactly what they are doing so they can't lie with impunity. Sort of reminds me of something a democrat president once did when someone else was lying about their missile capability. Well, just maybe, preventing our enemies from knowing our exact capabilities would help prevent them from using countermeasures to conceal their activities and/or eliminating those assets just before a critical event. Duuuuuh.... An intelligence expert you are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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