Sunday March 12 5:33 PM ET Canada's Radarsat satellite launched four years ago used for more than peaceful-only purposes promised DAVID PUGLIESE, Ottawa Citizen OTTAWA (CP) - Launched about four years ago, Radarsat, Canada's first space-borne remote sensing satellite was so sophisticated it could distinguish between objects back on Earth as small as eight metres wide. Federal politicians and Canadian Space Agency officials said the system would not be used for military purposes. In fact, they claimed the military wasn't even interested in the technology -it was solely for peaceful assignments, such as mapping forests and charting ocean ice movement to help ships navigate. But less than a year after launch, Radarsat added "military-spy satellite" to its list of jobs. And documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through the Access to Information Act show that not only was the Department of National Defence planning to use Radarsat for military purposes, but Radarsat information and images are being funnelled to the U.S. defence department. In 1998, the navy used Radarsat to observe wargames, including ship movements and amphibious landings, on the East Coast as well as tracking ships. U.S. intelligence agencies officials were also on hand to view the images. When a second Radarsat, scheduled for launch in two years, leaves for space it will carry a military surveillance system designed to test the ability to track missile launchers and armoured personnel carriers on the ground. By the time the third Radarsat satellite is launched, five years from now, military spying will be one of its main jobs. "Defence surveillance activities is ranked as the No. 1 application for Radarsat 3 time frame 2005," states a Department of National Defence report. "Defence applications are currently vital components to civilian earth observation programs. A future Radarsat mission must provide data that is of significant value to the defence market." According to the department's space plans, the goal of the Canadian Forces is to become a regular user of Radarsat 2 data "with a view to becoming a full partner in Radarsat 3." Radarsat has come a long way from the commercial satellite the Conservative government announced in 1987. In June of that year, Science Minister Frank Oberle's response to questions about Radarsat's potential military use was: "This technology is of no particular use to the military." Eight years later, at Radarsat's launch, Canadian Space Agency officials told journalists the same thing: the satellite would not be used for military purposes. In fact, it wasn't capable of monitoring objects such as military vehicles on the ground, they said. Mac Evans, president of the Canadian Space Agency, said the military's plans for Radarsat 3 are news to him. But he acknowledged that the satellites have technology of interest to the Canadian military, and the Forces have been using Radarsat. Unlike other satellites, which use optical lenses to photograph objects on the ground, Radarsat uses radio waves, allowing pictures to be taken in the dark, and through cloud cover and trees. Evans said he wouldn't be surprised if Radarsat data is being sent to the U.S. Department of Defence, because the U.S. space agency NASA gets 15 per cent of the satellite's time in exchange for having launched the device. But he said that doesn't make Radarsat a spy satellite. Nor does it make earlier statements from politicians and space agency officials inaccurate. "From the Canadian space program's point of view, we are fostering the use of space for peaceful purposes," said Evans. "That does not exclude military use." He said examples of peaceful use were tracking refugee movements in Zaire during the aborted 1996 Canadian Forces mission to that country and analysing photos from recent flooding in Mozambique. http://ca.dailynews.yahoo.com/ca/headlines/cpress/ts/story.html?s=v/ca/cpres s/20000312/ts/national_876029_1.html
