Wired has an interesting article today about a man who photographs secret spy satellites. Above is a photograph of a satellite that the U.S. government claims doesn’t exist.
It’s one of several of Trevor Paglen’s projects documenting things that the government tries to cover up, from hidden bases to secret CIA prisons to lists of secret projects with names like “Divine Invader” and “Shattered Castles.”
Paglen compares this secrecy to the antiscience doctrines of the Catholic Church during Galileo’s time: “More significant than the discovery itself was the idea that anyone with a telescope could verify it and see the same exact thing that Galileo saw.”
It’s a fascinating project that exposes the flaws in a “security through obscurity” policy. People spread information; secrecy cannot last forever.
