Denver Post September 27, 2001
US has mix of spy techniques
Monitoring satellites prime duty
By Mike Soraghan
As U.S. military forces fan out around the globe to fight terrorism, military forces in Colorado will watch over them from computers.
They will monitor the satellites that guide U.S. missiles, and warn U.S. troops of any missiles headed their way. And they watch the skies over North America, seeking missiles and other threats.
Though some support personnel, such as civil engineers and military police, are being siphoned off to other units, much of Colorado's military mission is right at home, looking up at space.
With the U.S. Space Command headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base and the North American Aerospace Defense Command inside Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs is the heart of the U.S. military's satellite operations.
Since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, space power has become increasingly vital to the United States' high-tech style of war.
Experts say the technical edge they get from the satellites are crucial in Afghanistan, where superpower Russia crumbled against the harsh mountainous terrain.
"We'll be getting space support that the Russians back in the '80s could never have dreamed of," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a national security analysis firm.
Farther north, at Buckley Air Force Base near Aurora, government spies could be trying to listen in on the terrorist network using the radar stations inside highly visible white spheres that some refer to as "golf balls."
"It's generally assumed that at least some of the golf balls out there are NSA (National Security Agency)," Pike said. "There's spooky stuff at Buckley."
So, he says, if there are radio and cellphone conversations in Afghanistan that U.S. intelligence satellites can pick up, Buckley is one of the places they would be downloaded and processed.
NORAD, which came under fire for lag time in getting jets over Washington and New York when planes were hijacked Sept. 11, now is managing sorties over Washington and New York, and flights over other locations.
NORAD received word Wednesday that two of its Air Force generals have been authorized to order commercial airliners that threaten American cities shot down without checking first with President Bush, a senior military officer said.
Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart, the head of NORAD, said that such life-or-death decisions would be made by the generals only as a last resort.
Prior to the Sept. 11 attack there were no formal rules on how the military should deal with a hijacked airline piloted by what in essence are suicide bombers.
NORAD has National Guard aircraft on alert at 26 bases around the country, including Buckley.
Before Sept. 11, there were 20 jets ready to scramble. NORAD spokesman Capt. Ed Thomas says that number has now increased "exponentially," but won't say by how many.
NORAD is expecting to play a role in the Bush administration's new Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security, Thomas said, but that role hasn't been defined.
Any ground war is expected to be waged, at first, by elite Special Forces on precision missions. Colorado has one Special Forces unit, the 10th Special Forces at Fort Carson. But that unit doesn't appear likely to be called up for duty in Afghanistan because it is focused on Europe. Another group, the Fifth Special Forces in Fort Campbell, Ky., is focused on the Middle East.
So, much of Colorado Springs's mission will be carried out right at home, where observers are likely to see little change in day-to-day activity beyond heightened security.
At Schriever Air Force Base east of Colorado Springs, "space operators" run roughly 120 satellites, including global positioning satellites that can guide missiles, ground forces or hikers.
They also include the satellites that detect missiles being launched, both at the United States and at troops in the field. The New York Times contributed to this report.
Copyright 2001 The Denver Post
