The National Reconnaissance Office is to the US intelligence community as aircraft carriers are to the US Navy. Without the NRO, the payloads that are absolutely crucial to the IC's mission never get there. Without the NRO, the United States is nearly a premodern military power, our appreciation of the strategic situation is as weak as it was before Pearl Harb or or during the era of the (non-existent) "missile gap". Yet while there are...