The National Reconnaissance Office

Every few months McClatchy publishes a "Special Report", a series of articles about an important issue, such as Mexico, Bin Laden's killing, etc.  It looks like they have started a report about the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an office I had never heard of.

The NRO is another of our spy agencies.  With its annual budget of $15 billion it manages our satellites so that "when the United States needs eyes and ears in critical places where no human can reach – be it over the most rugged terrain or through the most hostile territory – it turns to the NRO".  The report is not about the the success or failure of the NRO.  It is about the office's interviewing of job applicants and employees.  

The office is rightly concerned with spies who are seeking to get inside the office.  One technique it uses to prevent such infiltration is polygraphy.  The office was given strict rules about the use of polygraphy, what can be asked, what cannot be asked.  McClatchy's work seems to indicate that these rules are being broken quite often in that considerable information is being obtained about people's private lives.  In fact, it looks as though the office is encouraging this rule-breaking by giving bonuses to those who obtain private information.  

It is not clear as to the use the office makes of this personal information, although it is stored in a database.  When someone confesses to having committed a crime, the office does not notify the police.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/10/155587/national-reconnaissance-office.html#storylink=cpy