Truthout has reprinted a New York Times piece by Philip Taubman on the death of a US spy satellite program at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111207P.shtml. How to spend $5 billion of taxpayer money and get absolutely nothing.
I have said this publicly before - the fact that they wrap these black space programs in secrecy to hide them from our enemies is a joke. So you Cold War warriors in DC think that the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, etc, don't know or have any details on all these orbiting systems?
Hell, they know more than the US taxpayer.
Let's get to the real truth here. The government is, in fact, really hiding how much money they have spent and wasted on these black sat programs. And who is responsible for oversight on these programs- Congress. That is like asking a weasel to guard the hen house.
I bestow a "Golden Fleece" award on the NRO, Boeing and to the idiots in Congress who serve in the intelligence committees. It is time to fire the whole bunch and clean house (let's get that weasel off guard duty).