Line of Control - Tom Clancy [56]
"If that is true, they probably haven't caught up with the terrorists yet," he said.
"I would have heard about it. Which means we've got to get to them first.
If the SFF executes the terrorists before they can be heard it will turn nearly one billion Hindus against Pakistan. There will be a war and it will be an all-out war, a holy war, with flame from the nostrils of Shiva." "Shiva-the destroyer," Friday said.
"A nuclear war."
"Provoked by the SFF and its radical allies in the cabinet and the military before Pakistan is equipped to respond," Nazir said.
Friday started running toward the Kamov.
"I'm going to get in touch with Op-Center and see if they know more than they're telling," he said.
"You'd better grab Mr. Kumar and bring him to the chopper. We may need someone to help convince Nanda she's on the wrong side of this thing."
As Friday hurried across the field he realized one thing more.
Something that gave him a little satisfaction, a little boost.
Captain Nazir was not as smart as he had pretended to be back at the inn.
CHAPTER TWENTY.
Washington, D. C. Wednesday, 8:17 p. m.
For most of its history, the shadowy National Reconnaissance Office was the least known of all the government agencies.
The spur for the formation of the NRO was the downing of Gary Powers's U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in May of that year. President Eisenhower ordered Defense Secretary Thomas Gates to head a panel to look into the application of satellites to undertake photographic reconnaissance.
That would minimize the likelihood that the United States would suffer another humiliation like the Powers affair.
From the start there was furious debate between the White House, the air force, the Department of Defense, and the CIA over who should be responsible for administering the agency.
By the time the NRO was established on August 25, 1960, it was agreed that the air force would provide the launch capabilities for spy satellites, the Department of Defense would develop technology for spying from space, and the CIA would handle the interpretation of intelligence. Unfortunately, there were conflicts almost from the start.
At stake were not just budgeting and manpower issues but the intelligence needs of the different military and civilian agencies.
During the next five years relationships between the Pentagon and the CIA became so strained that they were actually sabotaging one another's access to data from the nascent network of satellites. In 1965, the secretary of defense stepped in with a proposal that time and resources would be directed by a three-person executive committee. The EX COM was composed of the director of the CIA, the assistant secretary of defense, and the president's science advisor. The EX COM reported to the secretary of defense, though he could not overrule decisions made by the EX COM The new arrangement relieved some of the fighting for satellite time though it did nothing to ease the fierce rivalry between the various groups for what was being called "intelligence product."
Eventually, the NRO had to be given more and more autonomy to determine the distribution of resources.
For most of its history NRO operations were spread across the United States. Management coordination was handled in the Air Force Office of Space Systems in the Pentagon. Technology issues were conducted from the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base in California. Intelligence studies were conducted from the CIA Office of Development and Engineering in Reston, Virginia.
Orbital control of NRO spacecraft was initially handled by technicians at the Onizuka Air Force Base in Sunnyvale, California, and then moved to the Falcon Air Force Station in Colorado. Signals intelligence other than photographic reconnaissance was handled by the National Guard at the Defense Support Program Aerospace Data Facility at Buckley Air National Guard Base in Aurora, Colorado. The U. S. Navy's NRO activities were centered primarily on technology upgrades and enhancement of