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This high-frequency transmitter and array of antennae in Alaska are part
of a military experiment that could be used to map underground
structures.
The high-tech hunt for terrorist lairs
U.S. could employ satellites and antenna arrays to map caves
By Robert Windrem
NBC NEWS PRODUCER
Nov. 27 - The United States is using its growing expertise in
virtual spelunking to search Afghanistan's maze of caves for Osama bin
Laden. Satellite imagery and an experimental underground mapping program
hidden away in rural Alaska are just some of the tools at Washington's
disposal.
JEFF RICHELSON, an intelligence historian who works with the
National Security Archive, says the United States has long been
interested in looking underground and has put several systems to use
over the years:
Spy satellites and spy planes that look for construction equipment and
slight variations in ground temperatures, which can indicate the
presence of structural elements like shafts, entrances and even
communication links.
Seismic stations that listen for explosions associated with
construction.
Ground sensors planted covertly by special operations forces and spies
near suspected sites to monitor heat and sound from underground.
There have been a number of successes - for example, massive
Soviet underground hideouts were discovered in 1971 by enhancing spy
satellite pictures. But locating an underground structure and imaging it
are two different things.
Richelson, author of "The Wizards of Langley," a new book on spy
technology, believes that two experimental spy satellites launched
several years ago - code-named Cobra Brass and Misty - were used to
further enhance U.S. detection capabilities. Moreover, newer versions of
the CIA's workhorse KH-11 spy satellites may have upgraded capabilities.
Richelson said the advanced KH-11 is almost certainly involved in the
effort to locate caves used by bin Laden and the Taliban.
Richelson noted that two key multispectral technologies would be
particularly useful for tracking caves: infrared and thermal imaging.
"Infrared looks for reflected heat. Thermal looks for heat
generated by the object," he said. "The advanced KH-11 has had some
capabilities in these areas since 1992. Whether that capability has been
significantly upgraded is classified."
Another tool the United States could find helpful in pinpointing
caves is the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, which has already been
used to track Taliban and al-Qaida movements.
The Predator, say imaging experts, is ideal for tracking heat
sources because it has both infrared and thermal imaging capabilities,
plus the ability to hover for hours above a suspect site.
A senior U.S. official would neither confirm nor deny the aerial
vehicle's usefulness, saying only that the Predator "has a variety of
imaging capabilities."
HAARP IN THE HUNT
Meanwhile, the United States has been spending millions of
dollars on two above-ground stations that use experimental technology to
find underground complexes. The stations are both in Alaska - one near
Gokana, 180 miles east-northeast of Anchorage, and the other west of
Fairbanks. Over the past five years, the government has spent $70
million on the technology.
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Of the two sites, the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research
Project near Gulkana, known by the acronym HAARP, is the most advanced.
Run by the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force's Phillips
Laboratory with help from the University of Alaska, HAARP has been
operating for seven years, first under secrecy then more recently in the
open. And it has not been without controversy.
Using 72 180-foot antennae set on a 33-acre gravel pad, HAARP
heats - some would say it boils - the ionosphere to create a "mirror" so
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Frequency/Very Long Frequency radio waves can bounce off and penetrate
the Earth. By measuring anomalies in the return signal, the military has
had some success in creating "images" of underground facilities,
including human-made tunnels and natural cavities. Once identified,
tunnel entrances can be more easily spotted by satellites or spy planes,
communications from the complexes can be more easily intercepted by
antennae in space or on the ground, and underground facilities can be
more easily targeted.
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Such signals, according to the HAARP Web site, "can penetrate
deeply beneath the surface and interact with the geological structure of
the Earth. ... The research called for in this effort is to assess the
viability of exploiting the concept of electromagnetic induction to
detect and image subterranean features such as tunnels, bunkers and
other potential military targets."
Officials have said the detection of underground facilities was a
byproduct of the main research mission of the project - "simulating the
aurora borealis to determine how we can compensate for its effects on
our satellites," as one official put it. HAARP has also become a
favorite of conspiracy theorists who see it as a "death ray," a means of
"mind control" on a massive scale and a phenomenon responsible for
widespread buzzing sounds heard in Germany and during Turkish
earthquakes.
MORE POWER
Just a week before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon, the Office of Naval Research announced that it was
negotiating with a Washington contractor, Advanced Power Technologies
Inc., to enhance the system and bring it to full power. HAARP has been
running at about one-quarter of its planned power.
It is not known if HAARP has been used in the hunt for bin
Laden's caves, and attempts to reach Advanced Power Technologies were
fruitless.
However, its Web site describes HAARP's capabilities this way:
"The (VLF/ELF) signals are useful for communications with land forces
and submarines and, because they have great penetration range, for the
investigation of subterranean formations or structures."
Advanced Power Technologies also advertises that it has a full
range of hyperspectral cameras and data-processing technology along with
global ground tomography technology, which it describes as
"characterization of underground structures."
That means the company could easily combine HAARP's ability to
find underground structures with its own ability to find minute
gradations in ground temperatures.
Although U.S. officials declined to say whether HAARP or other
similar technologies were being used, they noted that looking for bin
Laden was an "all-source intelligence effort."
Robert Windrem is an investigative producer for NBC's "Nightly
News."
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