Defense Week October 1, 2001
Where The War Might Be
While the Pentagon is at great pains to keep its plans on a possible military strike against Afghanistan secret, an Alexandria, Va.-based defense watchdog group is doing what it can to give Americans an idea of where U.S. troops may be heading.
The nexus of modern satellite technology, the Internet and painstaking research have provided an intriguing picture of the terrain and warren of hiding places available to terrorists who may be taking refuge in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan
Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite one-meter resolution image of the Darunta terrorist training complex in Afghanistan. |
On the group's web site - www.globalsecurity.org - Brown shows off his interpretation of the photos, pointing out what appear to be tunnel complexes, defensive fortifications and troop movements.
Brown said his organization is trying to buy archived imagery at lower resolutions-about 10 meters as opposed to the one-meter resolution of the camp photos-of the entire country, so if operations do commence there, he'll be able to provide photographic context.
But the Pentagon and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency could stymie his efforts by buying exclusive rights to the pictures provided by Space Imaging. So Brown is trying to line up foreign companies that provide satellite pictures to private companies-companies that don't have the U.S. government looking over their shoulders.
One potential source, Russia, has already rebuffed his entreaties, but he said he'll keep trying.
Copyright 2001 King Communications Group
