DOWNGRADING OF (Sanitized) PHOTO MAPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B01709A003500030011-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 5, 2004
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: June 27, 1961
• Content Type: MF

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Copy of 2?
27 June 1961
MEMORANDUM FOR- Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance
SUBJECT: Downgrading of
Photo Maps
1, In response to an inquiry of State Devartment
representative at the last meeting of COMOR9
has prepared the attached draft on the above subject.
2. The Committee is requested to study this paper
and be prepared to discuss it at the meeting on Friday, 30 June.
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Attachment
Draft on subject paper.
Copy 2--State TCO
3--OSD
4--JCS TCO
5--OACSI TCO
6--ONI TCO
?,8, 9-?-AFCIN TCO
10,11---NSA TCO
JAMES O. REBER
C
hairman
Com it,,ee on Overhead Reconnaissance
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a
Downgrading of
1. Production of
hotoo Maps
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photo maps through 25X1
joint participation of the Army Map Service and CIA has been undertaken
as one means of using the results of the
reconnaissance 25X1
program to satisfy certain requirements of the intelligence community.
The photo maps will serve the following purposes:
a. To provide a working tool for intelligence
analyst a who are responsible for assessing the development
of Sino-Soviet military and scientific programs and who
are relying increasingly on intensive area analysis in
arriving at judgments
b. To provide all intelligence analysts with
an infallible data base of priority information against
which to check new material and from which to determine
areal interrelationships.
C. To assist intelligence collectors by pro-
viding accurate maps on which to pinpoint targets to be
collected by means other than satellite reconnaissance,
In addition, the maps can prove valuable as guides toward
the elimination of collection requirements already satisfied,
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d. To provide the military services with
complete large-scale interim maps to cover plsnning
needs until topographic maps can be compiled.
. e. To improve the geodetic accuracy of
existing map holdings. (Although the photo maps are
primarily oriented toward presenting collated intelligence,
the best available geodetic control data is used in their
construction. )
f.
annotated photography for use by NPIC in
readout of future satellite reconnaissance missions.
To provide a systematic presentation of
To provide readily usrble cartographic
bases on which a variety of information may be overlayed
for briefing purposes.
h. To support vantage point analysis for
covert collection against special targets.
i. To assist war planners in determining
strike routes and target selectio !~ In this respect
the Directorate of Intelligence, SAC, was requested to
evaluate proofs of two maps and to suggest types of
annotations not already incorporated.: The suggestions
made were accepted and will be adhered to throughout
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To assist in determining operations
areas and routes and in planning covert-limited and
unconventional warfare.
20 Maps produced to date have been classified TOP SECRET
and consequently must be given extremely limited distribution.
However, because of their potential contribution to the solution of
numerous intelligence problems and to the filling of high priority
detailed mapping requirements, the interests of the intelligence com-
munity could best be served by reducing their classification and control
to SECRET
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as has 25X1
been done with products resulting from the U-2 program. As a result
of reduced classification, non cleared intelligence personnel
who require maps as analytical aids will have access for the first time
to the most accurate and comprehensive compilations available to the
West. Multiple copies of downgraded maps could then be deposited in
map libraries without taxing the limited
eliminating a number of administrative burdens.
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storage areas and
3. The remainder of this memorandum examines ways and
means of achieving downgrading without jeopardising I ecurity 25X1
and proposes a step-by-step approach to downgrading that will effect
release over a period of time.
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Problems Encountered in Downgrading
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to Maps 25X1
4. It is recognized that downgrading of the photo maps cannot
be carried out if doing so would reveal beyond plausible denial the photo
base has resulted from satellite overflight reconnaissance of the Sino-
Soviet Bloc. It is therefore i3eceseary to examine the elements which
conceivably could reveal the precise nature of the photo base, These
elements are the technical characteristics of the photography, the
extent of coverage, and the date of acquisition.
Technical Characteristics of the Photography
5. By the use of careful mosaic-laying techniques Jwhich
involve necessary rectification and alteration in scale in order to con-
form both to available geodetic control and to the format of the already
constructed Army Map Service transverse mercator projection at
L 250, 000 scale), cloud-free hotography can be used as a 25X1
photo base without knowledge of the true source being conveyed to
persons now unaware of its existence. These techniques include dodging
to eliminate tonal variations and cutting and fitting along hydrographic,
topographic. or cultural lines. However, because of size and configura-
tion, the presence of clouds on the photo base would be telltale evidence
of extremely high altitude photography- Therefore, only maps free of
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clouds, those from which clouds and their shadows have been completely
removed by photographic retouching and blending, or those revised by
patching-in of subsequent cloud-free photography could be selected for
downgrading.
Extent of Coverage
6. Intelligence personnel cleared to the SECRET
level are well aware of the fact that several overflight programs have
collected photography over the Sino-Soviet Bloc. Some of this photog-
raphy was considered highly sensitive and was
closely controlled as long as the operations were continuing but subse-
quently has been downgraded; other programs ~Genetrix
were classified SECRET or less from the outset. It is, therefore,
recognized in the intelligence community and in other government
operations and is not denied that the'U, S. possesses classified over-
flight photography and that it is utilizing it in every possible way for
intelligence purposes, The sole remaining security considerations are:
ao Extent of coverage, and
bo Date of acquisition (discussed in paragraph below).
Regarding the former, it is recognized that downgrading of photo maps
should not be so extensive as to suggest to
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personnel (who have not been indoctrinated] into the
that additional unique material is involved. (Onto result of downgrading
photography has been to acquaint unwitting
personnel with the fact that considerable overflight activity about which
they knew little or nothing has been accomplished.) Consequently, as
a means ofniding the disclosure of total coverage it is proposed to
restrict the downgrading of photo maps to those areas covered in large
part or contiguous to areas previously photographed. The accompanying
map shows the more important areas of existing non photog- 25X1
raphy on the Sino-Soviet Bloc and the 1:250, 000 map areas considered
safe to downgrade provided they meet the cloud free provision discussed
above,
,pate of Acq :.isition
7. Non.
that Sino-Soviet Bloc reconnaissance
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(program 25X1
indoctrinated personnel are unaware
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has continued beyond 1 May 1960, This ffct is a major
reason for the existence of the
security system and should
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be protected against disclosure. However, because the photo maps are
constructed to relatively small scale format and because they are
heavily annotated from material drawn from all intelligence sources,
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the undoctrinated person would have considerable difficulty in determine
ing whether the planimetric detail and the cultural features highlighted
were derived from the b;:.se photo rat hi ? or from 6 P collateral source
material. Maps already ?roduc..d
r.r fA
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'^- -_ _... +iv A- 1.? 17iOLQrjisiti acqutreo since the photography
was obtained. In any case, the date of photo base will either be omitted
entirely or coded in a manner designed to b unintelligible to the non-
cleared user, The sta~*,dard procedure of showing the date of the most
recent intelligcvace information will be substituted as the no,ninal date
for downgrade, maps. As .. further precaution, highly critics: cultural
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or e_Qricated int elligence sources before the map on which they appear
is released,
Summary of Proposed Downgrading Procedures
8, Only photomaps which adhere to the following specifica-
tiona will be downgraded to SECRET
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Those free of clouds or those from which
clouds and their shadows have been completely removed
either by photographic retouching or by patching from
subsequent cloud-free photography,
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b Those made tr,:orn moe,aics prepared in
such a way as to disguise the characteristics of the
original photographic fo rnat
c Those= made from hotography
duplicating coverage by other reconnaissance programs or
adjacent to areas covered by the latter, (these areas are
shown on the accompanying map.,
Those on which the date of the photographic
base is obscured by the planimetric detail or by annotations
from collateral sources either actual or fabricated, Photo
dare? if used ax all, will be coded..
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Copy 1--DDI(P) TCO
1Z. -OCI TCO
13--OSI TCO
14--ORR TCO
15--DIRNPIC
16--TSO CIA
17--OPS OFF/NPIC
18--C/DMD/NPIC
19--DDP TCC
20--Intel Staff iDPD
2l--SO/DPD
22-27-C/SRS/DPD/DDP
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