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The French SPOT is an example that comes to mind.  Although the
company (name escapes me at the moment) sells images world-wide, you
can bet your last dollar (franc??) that the French gov't gets first
dibs.

I remember a few years ago (about the time SPOT was launched), I
was speaking to my Dad (an USAF officer) about this and that, and I
happend to mention SPOT (I think we were talking about technology
utilization).  He just about went ballistic.  He wanted to know how I
knew about SPOT and just what I knew.  I guess that space surveillance
is such a sensitive topic in the Air Force that he couldn't believe
that I would read about such a system in the popular press (ie. AV week).

mark, 