I work with a guy who worked for DIA in the 1960's. He mapped Afghanistan in the early 1960's (based mostly on travel journals and old British maps) and the Ho Chi Minh trail, based on extremely hi res film cameras. He was an analyst who helped prepare intel for White House BDA briefings. Was occasionally questioned by White House brass, but was never around for the formal briefings. Those were done by people who didn't understand the source. We wonder if that's still the case (not to go into politics, please).

Curiously, we've been working on a bootlegged project (ie, no funding and work as time and resources permit) on acquiring imagery of the Mekong River delta. Today he got word that we hit the mother lode -- photography from the 60's and 70's. Now we're discussing seeking legitimate funding to essentially look at long term environmental impacts of Agent Orange and other policies.