Obama budget revives dispute over new spy satellites

The Obama administration's proposed budget for fiscal 2011 has reignited a major dispute over a multibillion-dollar effort to replace the nation's aging spy satellites.

Senate Intelligence ranking member Kit Bond, R-Mo., said Tuesday he was under the impression there was support in the administration for a plan to have the government buy a constellation of small, relatively cheap satellites to support intelligence and military operations. The plan was approved last year by the full committee.

But there was no funding for the plan in the administration's fiscal 2011 budget request released Monday, Bond said during a hearing to examine threats to U.S. national security.

Instead, the budget seeks funding for a different plan called Imagery Way Ahead, which calls for buying large, powerful and expensive electro-optical satellites while purchasing more data from U.S. commercial satellite companies.

Billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake along with major contracting work for defense and intelligence companies and commercial providers of satellite imagery.

Bond said he met last week with the director of the National Reconnaissance Office, retired Air Force Gen. Bruce Carlson. According to Bond, Carlson threw his support behind the Senate Intelligence Committee's plan.

Bond said after Tuesday's hearing he was stunned when he saw the administration's proposed budget for new satellites, the details of which are classified.

But NRO spokesman Richard Oborn disputed Bond's account, saying Carlson "fully supports" the Imagery Way Ahead plan backed by President Obama and senior intelligence officials.

Oborn also said the Senate committee's plan is not a replacement for Imagery Way Ahead.

The issue isn't likely to be resolved soon. When asked his next move, Bond said: "The president proposes; the Congress disposes. I intend to go to work."

During the hearing, the chief witnesses -- Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, CIA Director Leon Panetta and FBI Director Robert Mueller -- testified there is a high likelihood that a terrorist attack will be attempted in the United States over the next three to six months.

Blair said recent attempted attacks and successful strikes overseas "represent an evolving threat in which it is even more difficult to identify and track small numbers of [recently trained] terrorists ... and short-term plots than to find and follow terrorist cells engaged in plots that have been ongoing for years."

A partisan fight also erupted at the hearing over whether suspected terrorists should be given Miranda rights and tried in criminal courts in the United States.

Under questioning, Blair and Mueller said the president should have flexibility in determining whether suspected terrorists are tried in criminal courts or military commissions.

But contrary to what some administration officials have claimed, Mueller said he, Blair and Panetta were not involved in discussions or consultations over whether Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should have been read his rights for allegedly trying to blow up an airliner near Detroit on Christmas.

Mueller said the decision to give Miranda rights to Abdulmutallab was made by the head of the FBI's counterterrorism division and Justice Department lawyers. He added that Miranda rights "can, but often are not, an impediment" to getting intelligence during an interrogation.