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John,
Thanks for the interesting insights!
I interned at USGS in Reston back in the Seventies. I worked at the National
Center, and occasionally visited the E-2 facility.
I was aways wondering what the heck went on in Bldg. E-1! It always seemed so
odd for me that an agency that was largely open would have had a classified
facility!
Mike G.
From: John Cloud <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2011 9:53 AM
Subject: [MapHist] Re:USGS topo quads
This is a MapHist list message (when you hit 'reply' you're replying to the
whole list)
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"Maps for America" is in some sense the cover story to disguise what transpired
with USGS topographic mapping in the 1960s. The success of the TOP-SECRET
CORONA program (high level code names and security classifications were
obligatorily capitalized) (1960-1972) which was a system of several suites of
cameras using special Kodak film shot in near-Earth orbit, and jettisoned down
in capsules captured by airplanes off Hawaii,led to transformations through
American cartography.
From about 1964 and on, "advanced CORONA" featured stereographic pairs of
panoramic photography, coupled to specialized optical-mechanical rectifiers,
which allowed the rectified imagery to be used in mapping applications for
areas all over the world, specifically "denied territory" in the Communist
Bloc,but also domestic applications in the US. These included revisions to
USGS' 7 1/2 minute series.
Building E-1, the first structure of the USGS national mapping program at
Reston, Virginia, was a TOP SECRET TEMPEST level laboratory, which allowed USGS
personnel who had TALENT-KEYHOLE clearances to access CORONA photography for
domestic mapping. The legends of the quads hinted at matters: "Photo-revisions
based on aerial photography and other source data". Out of all this came the
Civil Applications Committee (CAC) the broker between the "nominally"
unclassified federal government and the Intelligence Community, traditionally
chaired by a high official in USGS. I say "nominally" unclassified federal
agencies, because these days there are classified installations, called SCIFs,
virtually everywhere. TALENT-KEYHOLE clearances are still extant, now just
abbreviated T.K.
"KEYHOLE" itself was utilized as a name by the Keyhole Corporation, creators of
KTML, which was an Intelligence Community commercial start-up bankrolled by
In-Q-Tel, which is essentially one of the venture capitalist arms of the
Intelligence Community. Keyhole was later bought out, entirely, by Google, and
the enterprise renamed Google Earth. All closely associated with the
clandestine processes set up in the 1960s for USGS topo quads.
-- _ _
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John Cloud
Geographer/Writer/Editor
NOAA Central Library
1315 East-West Highway
SSMC-3, 2nd Floor, E/OC4
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-713-2607, ext. 126
[email protected]
aussi:
Chez Cloud Urbanique
1915 Kalorama Rd. NW
Apt. 603
Washington, DC 20009
202-277-4931
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The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of
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Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for
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