6 ms·

Image identified as by USA 224, a classified satellite

36 points by simjue 7y ago

AcerbicZero 7y ago
Being as the image has had some information blacked out (in the corner) I seriously doubt that Trump snapped a pic on his iPhone and tweeted it from inside the SCIF or whatever. Someone looked at this image and approved releasing it, and I really do hope that person was at least marginally aware of the intelligence aspect (specifically, not Trump)
- mlb_hn 7y ago
  While that's accurate, it looks like the classification markers were blacked out post picture. That's important because it indicates that they didn't go and declassify the picture on the original system to share it. So the picture was taken, the classification markers were blacked out, and then POTUS tweeted it. We don't know the classification of the device which took the photo, the classification of the system on which the markers were blacked out, or when the decision was made to declassify the image.
  - AcerbicZero 7y ago
    I agree, and I think that's the largest concern here. Only a few years ago a sailor was jailed for a year (later pardoned) for snapping a photo in the general vicinity of certain classified items, and there is no excuse for the president behaving so flippantly with this kind of information. My original point was that the president may be surrounding himself with people who are green-lighting terrible ideas, and that is what concerns me.
    - mlb_hn 7y ago
      I get that. It's complicated because no one knows what happened; did he order it declassified and they just did it poorly or was he instead saving whoever originally took it a huge deal of trouble.
- rolltiide 7y ago
  > I'm not trying to defend Trump when do you think we won't need that kind of disclaimer
- rtkwe 7y ago
  Even under that there's the open question of was it a free approval or was it an 'at least black out the section that says what satellite and settings this was taken with.' That is if Trump insisted on using a photo there's not much anyone could do to actually stop him, any classification or security concerns can be swept aside by the President.
newsreview1 7y ago
I have heard him called a "social-engineering genius" (think The Atlantic, 2018) but this is just childish. So much for our intelligence community.
ebg13 7y ago
PREVIOUSLY https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20842474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20842474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20844394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20844394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20845111 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20845111 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20846040 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20846040 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20851501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20851501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20861003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20861003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20864354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20864354
jdc 7y ago
This is blogspam. Significantly higher quality article: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/09/image-from-trump-tweet-identified-as.html https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/09/image-from-trump-tw...
- floatingatoll 7y ago
  To get a faster reply, I've emailed your comment to the mods, since along with other comments it seems like they'll want to correct this, using the contact link in the HN footer.
- dang 7y ago
  Ok, changed to that from https://www.universetoday.com/143298/thanks-to-trump-weve-got-a-better-idea-of-the-capabilities-of-us-surveillance-satellites/ https://www.universetoday.com/143298/thanks-to-trump-weve-go.... Thanks!
whatshisface 7y ago
>This image has a much higher definition than anything the US has admitted to in the past. Other nations probably guessed that the US has advanced satellite imaging, but now they no longer need to guess. I think they still have to keep guessing, and here's why: >The satellites are believed to have been the source of some imagery of the Soviet Union and China made public in 1997; images of Sudan and Afghanistan made public in 1998 related to the response to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings;[citation needed] and a 2019 photo, revealed by President Donald Trump, of a failed Iranian rocket launch[10]. (Wikipedia) If these things were flying in 1997, presumably what's up there now is even better. That's over 22 years of time for further developments.
- bergoid 7y ago
  >If these things were flying in 1997, presumably what's up there now is even better. The USA-224 satellite was launched in 2011 and has much better capabilities than the ones that took the 1997/1998 pictures. The Wikipedia article you quoted [1] is about the entire KH-11 series, spanning >40 years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennen
- one2zero 7y ago
  Another article references USA-224 launched in 2011, that passed over the site in the time frame of the incident.
simjue 7y ago
Really "cool" how my submission got another title and url, thus, it basically became another submission...

36 points by simjue 7y ago

Being as the image has had some information blacked out (in the corner) I seriously doubt that Trump snapped a pic on his iPhone and tweeted it from inside the SCIF or whatever. Someone looked at this image and approved releasing it, and I really do hope that person was at least marginally aware of the intelligence aspect (specifically, not Trump)

mlb_hn 7y ago
While that's accurate, it looks like the classification markers were blacked out post picture. That's important because it indicates that they didn't go and declassify the picture on the original system to share it. So the picture was taken, the classification markers were blacked out, and then POTUS tweeted it. We don't know the classification of the device which took the photo, the classification of the system on which the markers were blacked out, or when the decision was made to declassify the image.
- AcerbicZero 7y ago
  I agree, and I think that's the largest concern here. Only a few years ago a sailor was jailed for a year (later pardoned) for snapping a photo in the general vicinity of certain classified items, and there is no excuse for the president behaving so flippantly with this kind of information. My original point was that the president may be surrounding himself with people who are green-lighting terrible ideas, and that is what concerns me.
  - mlb_hn 7y ago
    I get that. It's complicated because no one knows what happened; did he order it declassified and they just did it poorly or was he instead saving whoever originally took it a huge deal of trouble.
rolltiide 7y ago
> I'm not trying to defend Trump when do you think we won't need that kind of disclaimer
rtkwe 7y ago
Even under that there's the open question of was it a free approval or was it an 'at least black out the section that says what satellite and settings this was taken with.' That is if Trump insisted on using a photo there's not much anyone could do to actually stop him, any classification or security concerns can be swept aside by the President.

newsreview1 7y ago

I have heard him called a "social-engineering genius" (think The Atlantic, 2018) but this is just childish. So much for our intelligence community.

ebg13 7y ago

PREVIOUSLY https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20842474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20842474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20844394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20844394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20845111 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20845111 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20846040 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20846040 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20851501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20851501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20861003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20861003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20864354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20864354

jdc 7y ago

This is blogspam. Significantly higher quality article: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/09/image-from-trump-tweet-identified-as.html https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/09/image-from-trump-tw...

floatingatoll 7y ago
To get a faster reply, I've emailed your comment to the mods, since along with other comments it seems like they'll want to correct this, using the contact link in the HN footer.
dang 7y ago
Ok, changed to that from https://www.universetoday.com/143298/thanks-to-trump-weve-got-a-better-idea-of-the-capabilities-of-us-surveillance-satellites/ https://www.universetoday.com/143298/thanks-to-trump-weve-go.... Thanks!

whatshisface 7y ago

>This image has a much higher definition than anything the US has admitted to in the past. Other nations probably guessed that the US has advanced satellite imaging, but now they no longer need to guess. I think they still have to keep guessing, and here's why: >The satellites are believed to have been the source of some imagery of the Soviet Union and China made public in 1997; images of Sudan and Afghanistan made public in 1998 related to the response to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings;[citation needed] and a 2019 photo, revealed by President Donald Trump, of a failed Iranian rocket launch[10]. (Wikipedia) If these things were flying in 1997, presumably what's up there now is even better. That's over 22 years of time for further developments.

bergoid 7y ago
>If these things were flying in 1997, presumably what's up there now is even better. The USA-224 satellite was launched in 2011 and has much better capabilities than the ones that took the 1997/1998 pictures. The Wikipedia article you quoted [1] is about the entire KH-11 series, spanning >40 years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennen
one2zero 7y ago
Another article references USA-224 launched in 2011, that passed over the site in the time frame of the incident.

simjue 7y ago

Really "cool" how my submission got another title and url, thus, it basically became another submission...