Top Spook Shivs Secret Satellite

The nation's top spook is trying to show that's he's the new man in charge and he just sent a unmistakeable message to the military-industrial complex: please don't overcharge us too much. Patrick Radden Keefe over at the Danger Room are reporting that the new Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is killing off Misty, the reportedly redundant and ineffective "classified" spy satellite that let Lockheed Martin suck some $9 billion of the nation's coffers.

What good was a stealth satellite, anyway, when it's common knowledge that the U.S. has over a hundred military and intelligence satellites in orbit, and it's a safe guess that anything the Iranians or North Koreans do above ground on a sunny day is something they want us to see?

Oh and one other thing. The whole "stealth" feature? Not so much. The first generation of Misty, which was launched back in 1990, was spotted almost immediately – and not by Russian spooks, either, but by a bunch of amateur space observers, sitting on their balconies with binoculars.

Nevertheless, over the intel panel's objections, Misty continued getting funding, thanks to the good people on the appropriations committees.

Last time, McConnell was seen around these parts, he was whitewashing the administration's push for extra spy powers and lobbying to free the nation's telcos for any liablity for helping the government spy on Americans without warrants. Of course, if the nation's telcos were building out a total spy infrastructure that could monitor nearly any electronic communication, that'd be a secret. But if they were doing that, McConnell wants to free them.

Head Spook Kills Off Lame Spy Sat