NEW YORK, November 17. /ITAR-TASS /. US intelligence agencies oppose to deploying stations of differential correction and monitoring system GLONASS in the US, according to e-version of New York Times.
“In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed source in the White House.
As New York Times noted that the CIA, as well as other American intelligence agencies, feared that if the State Department let deploy GLONASS stations, “these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry”.
The publication noted that these suspicions were so serious that the White House postponed the final decision on the stations’ deployment until Russia provides additional information, and US agencies sort their differences.
Russia's attempts to achieve stations’ deployment in the US also stirred concern on Capitol Hill. According to The New York Times, members of the intelligence and armed services committees “view GLONASS with deep suspicion”. In particular, chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee Rep. Mike Rogers sent a request to the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA to assess the consequences of posting GLONASS to U.S. national security.
Moscow has sent a request to the United States for the construction of SDCM in May 2012. State Department spokesman Marie Harf told New York Times, that the last time the U.S. and Russia, "the main issues discussed placing SDCM GLONASS in the U.S. on April 25" this year, and no final decision has yet been taken. According Harf, United States asked the Russian more information on the planned stations.
Meanwhile, according to the newspaper, CIA analysts have already studied Moscow’s proposal on GLONASS stations’ deployment. According to NYT, this autumn they’ve prepared a secret report saying that the construction of these station didn’t meet the interests of counterespionage and raises other security questions. The State Department, however, as the source in the White House told the publication, believes that GLONASS stations don’t pose any threat.
New York Times recalls that American monitoring stations of GPS are deployed in many countries around the world , but not on Russia’s territory.