Iran Map Images
Idara Viengxay
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Click on Thumbnails below for larger images which are all available in higher resolution. You can download higher resolution images (400 dpi JPG, 4-5MB) of most of these photos from the National Archives Catalog. For use of Reagan Library audiovisual materials please read the AV disclaimer.
28154-30, President Reagan Meeting with Senior Staff regarding Nicaragua and Central American Peace Proposal in the oval office with Robert McFarlane, Oliver North, Langhorne Motley, David Chew, John Poindexter and Donald Regan. 04/04/1985.
28156-34, President Reagan Meeting with Senior Staff regarding Nicaragua and Central American Peace Proposal in the oval office with Robert McFarlane, Oliver North, David Chew, Langhorne Motley, John Poindexter and Donald Regan. 04/04/1985.
28156-36, President Reagan at his desk while meeting with Senior Staff regarding Nicaragua and Central American Peace Proposal in the oval office with Pat Buchanan, Langhorne Motley, John Poindexter and Donald Regan. 04/04/1985.
C38107-7, President Reagan in a Congressional leadership meeting regarding sales of arms to Iran with Senators Robert Dole, Robert Byrd, Congressmen Bob Michel, and Jim Wright and others in the Cabinet Room. 11/25/1986.
"This picture is so exquisite, and you see so much detail," says Jeffrey Lewis, who studies satellite imagery at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "At first, I thought it must have been taken by a drone or something."
But aerospace experts quickly determined it was photographed using one of America's most prized intelligence assets: a classified spacecraft called USA 224 that is widely believed to be a multibillion-dollar KH-11 reconnaissance satellite.
Now, three years after Trump's tweet, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has formally declassified the original image. The declassification, which came as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request by NPR, followed a grueling Pentagon-wide review to determine whether the briefing slide it came from could be shared with the public.
The revelation comes just days after Trump announced his bid to run for president in 2024. It also follows the FBI's seizure in August of 33 boxes filled with over one hundred classified records, stored at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Some of those documents were reportedly related to Iran, according to the Washington Post.
The NGA, which produced the image Trump used in his 2019 tweet, is the government's clearing house for much of its intelligence. The agency collects images from drones, spy planes and satellites and turns them into information that can be used by decision-makers.
It's not uncommon for those people to want to declassify what they see, says Robert Cardillo, who served as director of the NGA from 2014 to 2019. Often, he says, he would suggest that the government release a lower-resolution image from a commercial satellite instead. "That was done from time-to-time as a way to protect that source, but then also get the information out," Cardillo says.
According to reports, Trump first saw the image as part of a daily intelligence briefing on the morning after the Iranian launch failure. In the most complete account of what happened next, published last year by Yahoo! News, President Trump asked to keep a copy of the photo, which was from a KH-11 series satellite. An hour later, he sent it out to more than 60 million followers on Twitter.
NPR has not independently verified that reporting, but what is clear is that the image in the tweet was a photograph of a sheet of physical paper, Lewis says. Visible at the center of Trump's tweet is the shine of overhead lights or a flash, and a shadow, possibly from Trump or an aid, photographing the image with a camera.
The image tweeted by President Trump shows a bright light at the center, most likely an overhead light or the flash of a cell phone camera used to photograph the original slide. AP hide caption
After he tweeted the image, Trump said that he did nothing wrong. "We had a photo and I released it, which I have the absolute right to do," he told reporters at the time. The president has ultimate authority over what material is classified, and Aftergood says that he was probably within his legal rights to publicize the image.
Cardillo, who now works as a senior executive for the commercial satellite company Planet, says that imagery is no longer as secret as it once was. The proliferation of commercial imaging satellites means that the public now has regular access to overhead views that are comparable, if not quite as good, as U.S. government satellites. Over his career, he saw the levels of classification for spy satellite images loosen up.
"The entire US intelligence community is incredibly averse to letting this information out," Lewis says. "The idea that the president would just scream 'YOLO!', photograph it and tweet it--is really hard to take."
Cardillo says he is certain that other countries have used Trump's tweeted image to learn more about what U.S. spy satellites can do. If, for example, Putin had tweeted a photo from a Russian satellite, he says that the U.S. would have assembled a task force to learn everything they could from the image.
Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program in 2015.
While the purpose of the building remains unclear, any work at Fordo is likely to trigger new concern in the waning days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Already, Iran is building at its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion in July there that Tehran described as a sabotage attack.
Construction on the Fordo site began in late September. Satellite images obtained by the AP from Maxar Technologies show the construction taking place at a northwest corner of the site, near the holy Shiite city of Qom some 55 miles southwest of Tehran.
The AP later reached the Twitter user, who identified himself as a retired Israeli Defense Forces soldier with a civil engineering background. He asked that his name not be published over previous threats he received online. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute acknowledged taking the satellite photo.
Shielded by mountains, the facility also is ringed by antiaircraft guns and other fortifications. It is about the size of a football field, large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and hardened enough to lead U.S. officials to suspect it had a military purpose when they exposed the site publicly in 2009.
Meanwhile, an Iranian scientist who created its military nuclear program two decades ago recently was killed in a shooting outside Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel, which has long been suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the last decade, for the attack. Israel has not commented.
Iran - Teheran - Borj-e Milad - Turm der Geburt - Fernsehturm - 435 Meter - hchster Turm in Iran - sechsthchster Fernsehturm der Welt - Architekt: Mohammad Reza Hafezi - Handelszentrum: The Tehran International Trade and Convention Center - 05 2014 engl. Iran - Tehran - Milad Tower - Tower of birth - TV Tower - 435 meters - tallest tower in Iran - sixth highest TV tower in the world - Architect: Mohammad Reza Hafezi -The Tehran International Trade and Convention Center - 05 2014
Iran - Teheran - Restaurant Divan - Sam Shopping Center - Terrasse - Nordteheran - teuerster Stadtteil von Teheran - 05 2014 engl: Iran - Tehran - Restaurant Divan - Sam Shopping Center - Terrace - north Tehran - the most expensive district of Tehran - Starter - fresh herb salad with cheese truffles and medjool dates Main Course: grouper (hamour) with baked jogurt sauce with leek rice Drink: rose water with safran 05 2014
Zuder had heard rumors about the food, atmosphere, and design at Divan, a restaurant in northern Tehran that specializes in contemporary interpretations of traditional Persian dishes. After a fresh herb salad with medjool dates and cheese truffles, grouper fish paired with yogurt sauce, rice with leeks, and a glass of saffron-infused rose water, Zuder snapped this photo of an empty corner in the bustling establishment.
Iran - Shushtar - Provinz Khuzestan - antike Befestigungsstadt - historisches Bewsserungssystem - UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe - 05 2014 engl: Iran - Shushtar - Khuzestan province - antique city - historical irrigation system - UNESCO World Heritage site - 05 2014
Iran - Teheran - Borj-e Milad - Turm der Geburt - Fernsehturm - 435 Meter - hchster Turm in Iran - sechsthchster Fernsehturm der Welt - Architekt: Mohammad Reza Hafezi - Handelszentrum: The Tehran International Trade and Convention Center - Blick auf den Norden Teherans - 05 2014 engl: Iran - Tehran - Milad Tower - Tower of birth - TV Tower - 435 meters - the highest tower in Iran - sixth highest TV tower in the world - Architect: Mohammad Reza Hafezi - Mart: The Tehran International Trade and Convention Center - View of the northern Tehran - 05 2014
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