Colossal US rocket loaded with classified snooper satellite cargo shot into space

RT

 

The world’s largest rocket has successfully blasted into space from Florida’s Cape Canaveral for all to see, but the exact details of its intelligence agency cargo is something that the US government is keeping a closely guarded secret.

The United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint space delivery service by aerospace giants Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company, carried out the launch of a Delta IV Heavy rocket on Saturday afternoon.

It saw the triple engine craft roar from its launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, traveling at the speed of sound before soaring beyond the atmosphere.

 While much is known about the rocket’s early movements, the Delta IV’s final destination is being kept under wraps.

A statement from ULA is scant on detail, simply explaining that the 32nd Delta IV mission is for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to support “national defense.”

The NRO is perhaps one of the lesser-known US intelligence agencies, the function of which were only made known to the public back in 1992. The office is largely responsible for producing spy satellites and improving hardware sent out to space.

“When the United States needs eyes and ears in critical place where no human can reach - be it over the most rugged terrain or through the most hostile territory - it turns to the National Reconnaissance Office,” a mission statement on the NRO website reads.

It is believed that the latest Delta IV rocket launch is again part of that bid to have “eyes and ears” in difficult to reach places, although the exact purpose or location of the satellite is unknown.

US spy-satellite agency failed to report sex crimes against children to authorities

RT

The agency that controls US intelligence satellites failed to inform law enforcement when some employees and contractors admitted during lie detector tests to child abuse crimes, according to the intelligence inspector general.

The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which operates surveillance satellites for the US intelligence community, was also found in other cases to have delayed reporting to authorities admissions of criminal activity uncovered during security clearance polygraph tests. Two inspector general reports released Tuesday found these delays possibly imperiled evidence in investigations or even endangered children. 

In one case, an NRO legal counsel advised employees against reporting admissions by a government contractor of child molestation, viewing child pornography, and sexting with a minor, according to the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General. 

“Doubt we have enough to interest the FBI,” the NRO’s then-assistant general counsel told another agency official in an email, adding, “the alleged victim is fourteen years old and fully capable of calling the police herself.”
 
The NRO employee reported the confession anyway, revealing that the girl was still in contact with the contractor who had admitted to the crimes. The US Department of Justice was not informed of the confession for nearly five weeks, according to McClatchy news service. 

Overall, 30 individuals of the 30,000 who took the NRO polygraph tests from 2009 to 2012 confessed to child abuse or possessing child pornography, the inspector general found. The inspector general’s office referred for investigation seven confessions related to child pornography or child abuse that the NRO failed to report. 

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