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Richard Langley wrote:
> 2) GPS is managed by the U.S. Air Force bit is under joint civil-military
> control. Officially:
> "The Secretary of Defense shall:
> Have responsibility for development, acquisition, operation, security, and
> continued modernization of the Global Positioning System, while facilitating
> appropriate civil and homeland security Department and Agency representation
> and participation in these activities, and any decisions that affect civil and
> homeland security equities."

I, for one, am thankful that SA was turned off before 9/11.

For most bureaucracies (and governments are certainly examples), the
appearance of addressing a problem is often more important than the
effectiveness of measures being employed.*

It is therefore easy for me to imagine the US government using the 9/11
attacks as a premise to continue SA had it not been turned off by then
(in fact, I'm rather surprised that it hasn't been turned back on
again), despite the fact that any attack predicated on using non-SA GPS
is more worthy of a movie plot than a credible threat.

BTW, I'm not trying to start a political discussion (and I apologize if
this note comes across that way to anyone), just noting the behaviors of
bureaucracies.

Lu Abel


* Just a couple of examples from the US Homeland Security:

1.  A small coastal town in Alaska received a federal grant of nearly
$1/2M to install a video surveillance system throughout the town based
on the premise that someone might ship a nuclear weapon stolen in Russia
to their town via a tramp steamer and then off-load it into a truck and
drive it to someplace important in the lower 48.  Trouble is that none
of the cameras surveils the town's waterfront and docks.

2.  Driving small rental (U-Haul) trucks through the tunnels joining New
Jersey to New York City is forbidden because "someone might put
explosives in one and blow it up in the tunnel."  The fact that one
could rent a large SUV such as the Ford Expedition and Chevrolet
Suburban and carry an even greater load of explosives than these tiny
trucks is lost on the authorities.

   

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