[wordup] Anyone can tune in live to the U.S spy plane transmissions

[Adam Shand]

Via: John Wojtacha <jcw at oraclegeek.com>
From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/766299.asp?0dm=C14MT

U.S. spy imagery viewed by civilians
British enthusiast downlinks spy plane images on satellite TV

LONDON, June 13 — Uncovering a potentially serious lapse in NATO
security, a British satellite TV enthusiast has discovered that
unencrypted U.S. spy plane transmissions used by the alliance can be
downlinked on commercially available satellite television. Video
available includes images from sensitive military locations such as the
NATO mission in Kosovo.

SATELLITE ENTHUSIAST John Locker said that anyone can tune in live to
the U.S spy plane transmissions.

       “I wasn’t tapping into anything. The pictures were freely
available and anyone could see them,” Locker told the BBC in an
interview. “In fact it was easier to see these pictures than
pay-per-view films or even Saturday sports,” he said.
       Viewers tuning into the satellite this week were able to watch a
security alert round the U.S. Army’s headquarters at Camp Bondsteel in
Kosovo.
       Contacted by NBC News, U.S. officials offered little response to
the allegation on Thursday. The National Security Agency and CIA
referred questions to the Pentagon, where one official asked: “How do
you know it’s real?”
       But a a U.S. official who watched the video told NBC that the
material was real, and acknowledged that there are serious questions
about why the United States would potentially jeopardize security by not
encrypting the transmission. While not on a combat mission, the NATO
forces in the Balkans are in an area of al-Qaida activity, the official
said on condition of anonymity. There have been recent threats against
the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, and Islamic radicals have been known to
operate in the region.
       Another U.S. official, asked about the broadcasts, said there
were plans now to encrypt the data.
       
INTERNET TRANSMISSION

       The pictures, from manned spy aircraft and drones, have been
broadcast through a satellite over Brazil. The links, which are not
encrypted, have been transmitted also over the Internet.
       “They were from a commercial satellite, sending pictures just as
any commercial satellite would,” Locker said.
       Locker said he had been trying for seven months to warn NATO and
the Americans about the broadcasts showing NATO surveillance operations
over the Balkans.
       “They eventually told me it was a hardware constraint, they were
aware of it and they thanked me for my concern,” he said.
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       “Obviously I’m not a military analyst and I’m not an expert in
this field but I am just amazed this type of material is going out
free-to-air.
       “They put up data quite often which identified vehicles and the
area to within two meters (yards). That to me is a risk.”
       U.S. officials told NBC that sending the video without encryption
would save both time and money. Military satellite channels have been
overbooked, so the Pentagon routinely uses commercial satellites. But
since 1984 the Pentagon has required that satellite feeds be encrypted.
       
‘PLANS TO ENCRYPT DATA’

       Last week, the spy plane provided airborne cover for a heavily
protected patrol of the Macedonian-Kosovo border near Skopje.
       Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board,
told the BBC: “There are plans to encrypt this data.”
       “We have discovered in the period since September 11 how
important this sort of real-time intelligence is. Now we are making much
better use of this kind of information and it will make sense to encrypt
it in the future.”
       Locker, also interviewed by The Guardian newspaper, said: “I
thought that the U.S. had made a deadly error. My first thought was that
they were sending their spy plane pictures through the wrong satellite
by mistake and broadcasting secret information across Europe.”
       One U.S. military intelligence source told the paper: “We seem to
be transmitting this information potentially straight to our
enemies...This could let people see where our forces are and what they
are doing. That’s putting our boys at risk.”
       There was no immediate comment from NATO in Brussels.
       
       NBC’s Robert Windrem in New York, Andrea Mitchell in Washington,
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.