Top secret U.S. 'eavesdropping' satellite blasted into space

Ted Molczan posted search elements for this satellite taking into account the timing of the geosynchronous transfer orbit burn. The burn would place it either over Asia where he believes it may drift eastward to replace Mentor 1 or the satellite may drift west from its initial geosynchronous spot to cover Africa by the second week in December.

reply to post by andy1033

Probably just the tip of the cluster*uck iceberg...

It is no secret to anyone that the United States has the world’s most ramified system of secret services. Until a just short time ago, if you asked an expert how many agencies this system has, he would have probably been perplexed. But now you can finally get the exact answer - the U.S. special services comprise more than 1,300 governmental and about 2,000 private agencies. The figure was cited by the Washington Post after a two-year survey.

A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.

* Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.