[Infowarrior] - New Law All but Bars Russian GPS Sites in U.S.

[Richard Forno]

December 28, 2013
New Law All but Bars Russian GPS Sites in U.S.
By ERIC SCHMITT and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/world/europe/new-law-all-but-bars-russian-gps-sites-in-us.html

WASHINGTON — Tucked into the mammoth defense budget bill that President 
Obama signed into law on Thursday is a measure that virtually bars 
Russia from building about a half-dozen monitor stations on American 
soil that critics fear Moscow could use to spy on the United States or 
worse.

Russia first broached the idea of erecting the domed antenna structures 
here nearly two years ago, saying they would significantly improve the 
accuracy and reliability of its version of the Global Positioning 
System, the American satellite network that steers bomb-bearing 
warplanes to their targets and wayward motorists to their destinations.

Congressional Republicans, however, harbored suspicions that Russia had 
nefarious motives behind its plan, which the State Department supported 
as a means to mend bruised relations between the two rival nations. The 
Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency sided with congressional 
critics, concerned about handing the Russians an opening to snoop on the 
United States within its borders.

The monitor stations have been a high priority of President Vladimir V. 
Putin for years as a means to improve Moscow’s global positioning 
network — known as Glonass, for Global Navigation Satellite System — not 
only to benefit the Russian military and civilian sectors but also to 
compete globally with GPS.

As the White House sought to reconcile the internal squabbling among 
government agencies, skeptical members of the intelligence and armed 
services committees in Congress intervened in recent weeks to deal a 
near-crippling blow to the prospect of Glonass stations in the United 
States.

Under the new law, unless the secretary of defense and the director of 
national intelligence certify to Congress that the monitor stations 
would not be used to spy on the United States or improve the 
effectiveness of Russian weaponry — or unless they waive that 
requirement altogether on national security grounds — the plan is dead.

“The idea was to make it next to impossible, if not impossible, to do 
this,” said a House Republican aide involved in the legislative process, 
who spoke on condition of anonymity because of committee rules 
prohibiting officials from talking publicly to the news media. “We also 
took the State Department out of the loop since they were the ones who 
caused all the trouble in the first place.”

The snub to the Kremlin’s request came as the White House received a 
State Department report on Friday trumpeting United States-Russian 
cooperation in a wide range of areas, including national security and 
science. Glonass did not make the cut.

American relations with Russia are now at a nadir because of Moscow’s 
granting asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security 
Agency contractor, and its backing of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Administration officials on Friday sought to play down the significance 
of the new constraints, saying that discussions with the Russians 
continue but that no decisions have been reached. The Pentagon and the 
Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred questions to 
the State Department, which is taking the lead on the issue for the 
government. A State Department statement said, “Any decision taken will 
be in compliance with all relevant legislation.”

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington did not return phone 
or email messages. The Russian effort is part of a larger race by 
several countries, including China and European Union nations, to 
perfect their own global positioning systems and challenge the dominance 
of the American GPS.

“There isn’t any question that their system would be more accurate and 
reliable if they had some stations somewhere in the northern half of the 
Western Hemisphere,” said Ralph Braibanti, a former director of the 
State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology. “The more 
stations you have, the more corrections you can make, and the more 
reliable the system you have.”

Mr. Braibanti said that rebuffing the Russians would deal a blow to 
efforts by the State Department to work with other countries to make 
their positioning systems more accurate.

“There is a significant argument in favor of going the extra mile to 
accommodate what the Russians feel are their needs,” he said, because it 
would improve all systems amid demands from consumers for more accurate 
GPS readings, he said.

After The New York Times reported in November that there were divisions 
between the State Department and the intelligence agencies about whether 
to allow the Russian structures, congressional Republicans publicly 
opposed acquiescing to the Russians’ request.

The new law requires the certification from the Pentagon and 
intelligence agencies or a waiver from the defense secretary and 
director of national security to ensure that any data collected or 
transmitted from the monitor stations are not encrypted; that anyone 
involved in building, operating or maintaining the structures is an 
American; and that none of the stations are near “sensitive United 
States national security sites.” The waiver would also require that the 
stations not pose a cyberespionage threat or weaken the American GPS 
technology for consumers.

“The provision,” said Roger Zakheim, a former general counsel of the 
House Armed Services Committee, “certainly creates a high bar for the 
secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence to 
authorize or permit this type of construction.”

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