Whether the error lay with the Central Intelligence Agency or the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, some American experts say the bombing is the result of an overly complex and outmoded intelligence bureaucracy.

CNN: DELICATE MISSION TO CHINA

The proposed cuts are likely to have an impact on long-term contracts between the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and U.S.-based satellite-imagery providers DigitalGlobe Inc.

WSJ: U.S. to Trim Commercial-Satellite Use

The company books half its revenues from the U.S. government, namely the NextView satellite imagery program, run by the Department of Defense's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

FORBES: In The Beltway Orbit: GeoEye

Commercial satellite imagery helps do that, one reason a bi-partisan group of Congressmen, including Senate Select Committee on Intelligence members Mark Warner (D-Va.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta requesting full support for the program.

FORBES: Self-Inflicted Blindness: The Austerity Threat To Innovation