A system, and corresponding method, for retrieving image and metadata from multiple sources in response to a query received from an originator having a corresponding clearance level. The query is received through an interface and then any errors or ambiguities in the received query are determined and corrected to create a parsed query. A standardized query is created from the parsed query and has a system usable format including corresponding query processing limitations and the standardized query is stored for later processing. The standardized query comprises one or more terms not accessible to the originator. The stored standardized query is processed to collect resulting corresponding image and metadata information. The query results are presented to the originator if a corresponding clearance level of the query results is at or below the clearance level of the originator.