[sizzzzlerz]

This blows me away. I worked on systems that processed the signals from these satellites at the ground sites. At the time, these were highly classified, requiring background investigations and a polygraph to be granted access to know about these things. All our work had to be performed in a SCIF and we were forbidden to discuss our work with anyone not cleared to know. The form that we had to sign when being briefed stated that this was a lifetime commitment. I never would have believed that the NRO would declassify this system.

[Neywiny]

I'm sure I don't need to say it, but what got declassified and the work you did are very, very different things. Pretty much everything in the notice is included in this article, so anything you're not reading.... Best to keep to yourself.

[sizzzzlerz]

Not to worry. Unlike trump, I didn't remove classified info from the SCIF and store it in my bathroom or share it with Russian dinner guests. I hold my oaths seriously.

[Ms-J]

That's what happens to a large amount of classified info; it ends up getting released eventually for various reasons.

Information needs and wants to be free for humankind.

[pseudohadamard]

Was this really that secret? I've known about JUMPSEAT for at least 20 years and I'm not a US citizen, nor do I have any kind of security clearance. Not sure where the information was published, maybe one of James Bamford's books, but there's nothing terribly new there apart from the USG finally acknowledging what we already knew.

[sizzzzlerz]

Knowing that some classified program exists is one thing. Knowing technical details, capabilities, missions, targeting, is a whole nother. One can read about such black programs from a number of sources, Bamford's Puzzle Palace is one. Sontag's Blind Man's Bluff is another. You can also learn about such things from books and newspaper articles about people who revealed secret information to the Soviet Union, Chris Boyce, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, and the Walker Family. In other words, nothing is truly secret if you know where to look and have a ability to piece together disparate facts to build up a more complete picture.

[Biggbboattttt]

Interesting point! I think a lot of the secrecy around programs like JUMPSEAT is more about official acknowledgment than actual hidden knowledge so what’s been publicly available for years suddenly becomes ‘news’ once the government confirms it. James Bamford’s work definitely made a lot of this info accessible to the public, so it makes sense that someone could know about it without clearance.

[kevin_thibedeau]

You also lose 4A for life per executive order.

[kevin_thibedeau]

For the downvoters. See EO12333 2.4(b) & (c):

  2.4 Collection Techniques...
  These procedures shall not authorize:
  ...
  (c) Physical surveillance of a United States
      person in the United States by agencies
      other than the FBI, except for:

  (1) Physical surveillance of present or former
      employees, present or former intelligence
      agency contractors or their present or former
      employees, or applicants for any such
      employment or contracting; and

  (2) Physical surveillance of a military person
      employed by a nonintelligence element of a
      military service.

This is written to look like it's constitutional but it's granting power through the wide-ranging exceptions. The upshot is it grants all agencies other than the FBI approval to surveil individuals covered by 2.4(c)1 & 2. The FBI gets a complete blank check on everyone. Covering "former employees" means this remains in effect until death for those affected.

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/execu...

[Syzygies]

(4A = Fourth Amendment, "unreasonable searches and seizures")