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Rustybot t1_iwws0yo wrote

A hobbyist was able to use this photo to ID the exact spy satellite, which was previously an anonymous spec in the sky, that took the picture.

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st_Paulus t1_iwzag0l wrote

>which was previously an anonymous spec in the sky, that took the picture.

There's no such thing on LEO. The fact it's a military satellite was known since the launch.

The orbit type tells us its likely purpose.

That picture confirmed it's an optical surveillance. And the most interesting part was the resolution of that picture.

We could estimate it knowing the rocket fairing diameter, which limits aperture diameter. But that was a solid confirmation.

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goosewut123 t1_ix17rjy wrote

This is from KH-11. NRO confirmed that this bus is more or less a modified hubble telescope; this was around a decade ago in 2012.

https://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/kh11optics-500x460.jpg

The real crime is watching the wannabe spooks pretend to give a single fuck about our nation's talent keyhole program, but when you look for the discussion by proword - it literally only exists in less than 1% of the public conversation.

>which was previously an anonymous spec in the sky, that took the picture.

lmao

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GatoNanashi t1_ix7x2vy wrote

The Kh-11 was designed before Hubble. The telescope likely took its basic design from the recon satellite, not the other way around.

That said, large Cassegrain reflectors aren't exactly rare so it may be as much convergent design as actually using the recon satellite as the basis for the telescope.

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Pyrozr t1_iww47wf wrote

Atleast that incident probably proves the US Government doesn't have any info on if aliens really exist and visit the earth. We know now Trump wouldn't have been able to resist being the dude that told the world they were real. "I'm the president, I can declassify anything I want to!"

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AbbieNormal t1_iwwv6o6 wrote

Or he's the only President they didn't tell, because ofc he would.

He needed the Short Presidential Briefing Book.

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kingofpotatopeople92 t1_iwxy5m8 wrote

Short Presidential Briefing Coloring Book. Frfy

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abx99 t1_iwydlwk wrote

The book is one page, and says "Trump is best president"

It comes with a few colored Sharpies, and the picture of him has enormous hands

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Old_timey_brain t1_iwzqng6 wrote

> He needed the Short Presidential Briefing Book.

And he didn't bother reading that, either.

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WinterholdMage t1_iwxs8t2 wrote

I don't know, in Independence Day the President was unaware of prior alien contact because he and presumably any president prior were on a "need to know" basis. I know it's fiction but compartmentalization of information is a thing and I feel it's within the realm of possibility that such information could be withheld from a president until such a time that it is deemed relevant for them to know.

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buddha8298 t1_ix79vhm wrote

It's just far more likely that they don't fill any of the presidents in on that stuff. A lot of people seem to think you become president and suddenly all secrets are open to you and you get the keys to area 51. I guess I can see why people assume that, but it's far more likely, if not an outright certainty, that no president is told. It's a position that is only temporary, often with leaders with little to no military experience and pretty much nothing to be gained by telling them.

Just consider that there is no way in hell that Trump was told anything and he actually kept it secret. At the very least he'd have tried to take some kind of credit when those ufo vids were released by the pentagon. Just to big a risk to tell someone that is only gonna be around for 4-8 years and then instantly becomes a liability concern (or liability certainty in Trumps case)

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Pyrozr t1_ix7c7ac wrote

Bro this thread was 2 days ago. You must be bored digging this deep.

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buddha8298 t1_ix7lfg8 wrote

Yeah you’re right. Practically an eternity. Glad to see you’re still alive. Where does all the time go?

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cebjmb t1_iwxhyt6 wrote

They could threaten to off him like Putin does to traitors.

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Fantastic_Hawk_3182 t1_iww5pf9 wrote

How much did he get for it?

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cherbug OP t1_iwwbyta wrote

A lovely estate on the Black Sea, a sweet little yacht, and monthly checks for life to the whole fam.

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PhoenixReborn t1_iwwqvgz wrote

Didn't we already know that at the time?

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MarkHathaway1 t1_iwxhy4e wrote

How much can he get away with before DoJ will actually think it's worth saving America from him?

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MrRumfoord t1_iwz4pbq wrote

Let's appoint a special counsel to investigate this question!

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fullload93 t1_iwxmjp9 wrote

This has been known for years now.

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cherbug OP t1_iwxvo8m wrote

Now, three years after Trump's tweet, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has formally declassified the original image.

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[deleted] t1_iwxy07p wrote

[deleted]

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streusel_kuchen t1_iwync9c wrote

The president does not have the power to declassify documents via Twitter

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Kayakingtheredriver t1_ix146mi wrote

The president (while in office) has the power to share information with whomever they choose. It isn't that the president declassified the document by sharing it with Twitter. He did effectively raise every twitter user's classification level to whatever level this document is, specifically regarding this single document, though. By legally putting it into the public domain, its classification level became a moot point. As much as we may not like it, the president does have the executive power to share any information.

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dubya_a t1_ix1ozei wrote

There's a process for declassifying. Tweeting aint it. As we'll learn via the Mar a Lago investigations, presidents cannot declassify thru sheer force of thought.

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Kayakingtheredriver t1_ix21smg wrote

A president can release information anyway they wish. There is a reason he isn't being prosecuted for this specific case. A president, much to your chagrin, can do what they want with information while president. Maybe that is a rule we as a country can change, and should change, but there is no criminal liability as president for mishandling of information. We can all say he mishandled it, but president is the one position, in which mishandling isn't a criminal/liability situation. AS such... a president is allowed to do with information what they wish, like tweet it without any risk of criminality. Once done, the security level of the secret released is moot. It is in the public domain by presidential decree. Similar to releasing it on the floor of congress. Once done, it just is.

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dubya_a t1_ix27i39 wrote

You are incorrect in several statements here. Trump is being investigated for these very specific cases, a special master has been appointed, in fact.

Criminal liability is not needed in order to investigate and find that Trump mishandled classified materials, but by nature of the warrants used to seize the classified documents, criminal liability has teeth.

Specifically though, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1924 lays out felony charges for someone who "knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location". Seems relevant.

Classified materials regarding atomic secrets do have a separate classification law that includes criminal penalties, and there are reports that some of the mishandled Mar A Lago assets that Trump refused to return to the White House were atomic in nature.

Regardless, failing to follow the basic procedures to declassify the documents - even after he did so by his perfect thoughts - and failure to return the classified docs even after being requested to do so for years... that's pretty bad. POTUS cannot claim ignorance to declassification procedures and the requests to return them. Besides, what's the old saying conservatives love, ignorance is no excuse?

It is telling that you jumped straight to criminal, not administrative or clearance-related penalties, and you should not be so haughty.

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Kayakingtheredriver t1_ix28jx4 wrote

No, Trump is being investigated for mishandling documents after he left the presidency. Nothing he did with documents while president is prosecutable. The second he was no longer acting president is when laws were broken, not until. This specific case we are discussing was 1 year into his presidency. We may not like that a president can release highly classified information directly to Vladimir Putin (effectively outing Israeli sources), but Trump did it, because he could, and beyond impeachment, there is no solution. As such, the president is ultimate decider of who needs to know. Releasing it to Twitter, as sitting president, there is no legal remedy. It was legal because as executive, he was the ultimate decider that information should be out there. It is the same reason Kushner was getting access to documents his clearance level didn't yet allow because of the myriad financial ties he had to outside countries/entities. He got the access to the information because trump said he should have access. Same thing.

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dubya_a t1_ix2et7r wrote

You're changing the argument again, but go ahead, you seem to be enjoying it.

Regardless, Trump cannot declassify documents by thought alone, nor can he do so retroactively.

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Kayakingtheredriver t1_ix2ex9n wrote

My argument has been the same since I began it. I have never once said he could. I simply have always said he (sitting president) can share it with whomever he wants, and doing so makes its classification moot.

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dubya_a t1_ix2ndq4 wrote

I provided specific examples and laws why that is wrong.

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Kayakingtheredriver t1_ix2p2yh wrote

Lol, you provided an example why it is wrong when he was no longer president. As president he had all the authorization. This has never been about Mar a Lago. The subject is the tweet he made as president and how that tweet made the classification of the material contained moot. It was now public record whether intelligence agencies liked it or not, and the president has the authorization to release it so there are no mishandling charges possible.

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dubya_a t1_ix71elm wrote

"Lol" no, when he was president, there is still a process to follow. This will certainly be litigated, but a legal process for declassifying documentation, especially atomic secrets, exists for a reason.

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Kayakingtheredriver t1_ix7hkmw wrote

There is no situation where the president is not authorized when it comes to information. That is the problem with how it is written. The president has the ultimate authorization when it comes to information. As such, while president, there is no punishment for the mishandling of information, giving it away or tweeting it on twitter. You can grasp at your process all you want. If there are no consequences for him not following them, and there are not, grasping at the process is all you can do. We all know he should follow the process, but the process isn't what gives him the power. The office does that, not the process. The process unfortunately, is for everyone else. The proof is in the pudding, there are no charges or criminal investigations regarding this tweet. There would be if what you were arguing were true.

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the_Q_spice t1_iwybx12 wrote

That isn't even remotely how classification or declassification works.

The NGA did not confirm nor deny (typical Glomar response) the nature of the image or if it was the full resolution or downsampled.

We now know it was not sanitized (downsampled) and is from a KH-11 satellite. We also now know both the location of said satellite and some extremely important info like its sensor sensitivities, spatial, radiometric, and spectral resolution, focal length, nadir swath, and even things like lens diameter.

The reason they are declassifying it is because the current assessment is that this particular satellite was burned as an intelligence asset. Everyone knows how it works and where it is orbitally, so can plan around it.

It is a $2 billion asset that was just washed down the drain.

Contractors also do not assess documents for declassification.

Source: a lot of my colleagues have either worked at the NGA or at NGA imagery analysis contractors. I personally do a lot of work using properly declassified KH-7 and KH-9 imagery to extend records of observation for infrastructure development impacts on ecology.

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[deleted] t1_iwz2yfj wrote

[deleted]

−8

0zymandeus t1_ix19ig4 wrote

So not a non-event at all. Why did you choose to use that term when it was never appropriate for what you claim you were trying to communicate?

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cherbug OP t1_ix0goq2 wrote

Reality Winner strongly disagrees.

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powersv2 t1_iwyqez0 wrote

Friendly reminder that we used to shoot and/or hang traitors. The US Legal system needs to get back to it.

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kent_eh t1_ix1bsyi wrote

> Friendly reminder that we used to shoot and/or hang traitors.

I would also accept a hamberder heart attack.

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Euripidoze t1_iwx8y1e wrote

Maybe garland will issue another subpoena and Trump will cut back on his rallies

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TheMindfulnessShaman t1_iwy9d43 wrote

Least illegal classified Trump leak.

I want to know the Top 10, but I would have had to actually go to Mar a Lago to find that out.

Couldn't pay me enough...

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CanuckFack t1_iwxw4g6 wrote

Was this posted by Internet Explorer? The whole world knew soon after it was tweeted lol.

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gregs1020 t1_iwzg82u wrote

who on earth didn't think we had this capability? it's probably not even the best we have.

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TrogdorKhan97 t1_ix0uczd wrote

Honestly, I'm kinda on Trump's side here. I don't think it was right for him to tweet that photo—or almost anything else he's done in his entire life—but it was his right as Commander-in-Chief. We can't let the people who control our weapons of war have power over the elected civilian leader, because that's their only tenuous tether to consent of the governed.

−5

Here_is_to_beer t1_iwy3ysf wrote

Fuck your trump hard ons

−13

Maximillion666ian t1_iwzw990 wrote

Says the right wing simp too slow to realize Trump may have damaged national security ,

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midwestrider t1_ix19hh2 wrote

If the security wasn't enough to register in a Trumper's adled brain, the fact that he made a $2B satellite useless with that tweet might get through.

You ever just flush $2B down the toilet for the imaginary internet points? Trump did.

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