When you look up at the sky, remember “they” are watching you. Who are the ubiquitous “they”? Satellites that orbit Earth. Mankind’s eye in the sky located thousands of miles above. They eavesdrop on conversations, monitor nuclear detonations or broadcast Al Jazeera worldwide.

Satellite Surveillance

What is a satellite? Technically any object that orbits the earth. The moon is the earth’s natural satellite. All satellites consist of three main parts: a metal frame body known as a bus, a power source (either solar or rechargeable battery-powered cells) and an onboard computer controlling the satellite. The computer also manages the attitude control system (ACS). ACS keeps the satellite pointed in the right direction.

Location: Iraq

Imagine that you’re a soldier in Iraq. You’re equipped with a phone integrated with GPS (Global Positioning System). GPS can pinpoint your location.

During the war on Iraq, the US Army used GPS receivers to coordinate their movements and find their enemy. Military satellites also mapped out Iraq’s terrain. Satellite images were made available to buy. The media used aerial shots of central Baghdad in programmes and print. But how high do satellites orbit to take photos?

Circling the world

Satellites have three different orbits: Geostationary, asynchronous and polar. A geostationary satellite stays in the same position while orbiting. They orbit at altitudes up to 22,223 miles. Communications, television and weather satellites all use geostationary orbits. A north – south orbit often indicates a spy satellite.

Asynchronous satellites pass overhead at different times of the day. Navigational satellites for the Global Positioning System (GPS) use asynchronous orbits. GPS Navstar satellites operate at altitudes of 6,000 to 12,000 miles.

Polar satellites pass over Earth’s poles on each revolution. They fly at a low altitude. Satellites used for mapping and photography work at polar orbits.

Enemies of the States

Enemy of the State was a popular film released in 1998. It starred Will Smith and Gene Hackman. The film’s plot focused on the US government’s use of surveillance technology to hide an assassination. Lawyer Robert Dean (Will Smith) was the unwilling witness. The government tracked, filmed, wiretapped and bugged Dean to discredit him. These technologies are now used against any Enemies of the States.

Wiretapping phone communications involves using a device to access a conversation. The device accesses the call at a point of its physical connection. Eavesdropping techniques on wired and wireless communications are becoming more sophisticated. Tapping wireless communications is almost “invisible”. Combining GPS and wiretapping technology makes eavesdropping and location tracking simple. 

When GPS catches murderers

In Washington County, US high courts convicted William Bradley Jackson of murdering his 9-year-old daughter Valerie in 1999. A GPS receiver, planted in his car, led police to his daughter’s shallow grave. The trial raised questions about Jackson’s privacy rights and GPS tracking.

In America, all mobile phones had to have GPS capabilities by June 30th, 2000. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set that date as a  deadline. So what are the safeguards against electronic eavesdropping? Today’s second and third generation mobile phones do encrypt phone calls. These protect against amateur eavesdropping. Governments also have strict regulations regarding the authorisation and use of wiretapping.

GPS Overview

The global positioning system is a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites. The US military first developed the network before opening it to everyone else. This satellite network maps out locations across the globe. GPS finds your location using a technique called trilateration. Imagine you are somewhere in the Sahara desert with a GPS receiver. The receiver sends signals to four satellites in different positions. Each satellite measures its distance from your positions. They map out a sphere to do this. The radius of the sphere is their distance from you. Inside the sphere is your possible location. With this completed, where the four spheres intersect is your exact location.

The Intelligence Cycle

In global surveillance, information rotates through an intelligence cycle. Information goes through the following processes: tasking, collection, exploitation and dissemination. More simply stated, establishing what you want to know, collecting the information, determining what you have and informing others about your results. The intelligence cycle is not just an application of technology. Organizations apply technology to their subjective needs. Technology is objective but an organization rarely is.

Tasking

Tasking is deciding where to point the satellite camera. It’s the first and most difficult step in the intelligence cycle. In military surveillance, tasking is observing enemy movements or sites. Tasking identifies the general proximity of sites rather than their exact location. Tasking focuses on building long lists of “suspect sites” instead of a hierarchy of definite military locations. The US satellite tasking of Iran supports this claim. Bush’s next pit-stop on his “axis of evil” has too many suspect sites substituting for genuine locations.

Collection

Satellites photograph the world. High resolution images from 1 to 2 meters are available publicly. At 1 meter resolution, a satellite 12,000 miles above the earth can watch a man dialing his phone. Commercial satellite imagery is available from Space Imaging’s  Ikonos satellite and Microsoft’s Terraserver.com .They sell satellite images for a variety of reasons, from estate management to homeland security.

Exploitation

Exploiting is finding out what you know. This means photographic interpretation of imagery, i.e. correct identification of enemy headquarters. Photographic interpretation is a highly specialized task. The craft evolved within the American classified intelligence community. They are able to grade satellite imagery according to a National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale. You also perform basic photo-interpretation looking out of an airplane.

In 1998, the USA bombed the Al-Shifa medicine factory in Khartoum, Sudan. The factory was thought to be producing chemical weapons. Misjudgments like this represent a failure in the tasking process. Through exploitation, misidentification is corrected and information gathered made useful.

Dissemination

Exploited information is now made available to others. The internet plays a role by globally distributing images.  High resolution satellite imagery is available online. Throughout the Iraq war, the BBC and CNN displayed satellite images of Saddam’s Republican palaces.

News-makers vs News-shapers

Satellite imagery has the power to make news instead of just shape news. The news production process is divided up between news-makers, such as politicians, and news-shapers, like opinion leaders and campaigners. News-makers pro-actively make news. News-shapers reactively shape news made by others.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US Government released selected satellite images to make news. In February 2003, Colin Powell set out Washington’s case for war against Iraq.  His presentation to the United Nations Security Council included spy satellite photos. They made news.

Satellite imagery is now accessible commercially. It offers the media and others the opportunity to make news. Through correct photo-interpretation, these organizations can introduce new facts to the public. As the intelligence and media communities each offer different photo-interpretations, future conflicts will occur.

Passive Public vs Active Surveillance

Economic and legal barriers stop most people engaging in cutting-edge surveillance. Costs are coming down. Thirty years ago, all satellites were government restricted. Now many systems are commercial. A war between individual privacy and national security always exists. The public are passive defending their civil rights of freedom and privacy. Could the War on Terror be to blame? Privacy is precious only when you realize that it’s gone. Governments actively monitor communications, when necessary. The US is currently developing the Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) program. Its goal is to revolutionize the ability to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists. Satellites will perform a role in the TIA. Surveillance pervades everyday life in the West. Most of us may not even realize it. “They” are playing I spy with my satellite as Big Brother goes global. We are all participants when, “they”, the space voyeurs, watch us.

Sources:

• Julie K.Petersen, Understanding Surveillance Technologies, 1^st Edition, USA,  CRC Press LLC, 2001

• GlobalSecurity.org, Public Eye

• Wired Magazine, Cops Challenged on GPS Use

• Gary Brown, How Satellites Work

• DARPA Information Awareness Office, Terrorism Information Awareness System

• BBC, Full text of Powell Speech

• Will Knight, Newscientist.com, US intelligence on Iraq “compelling” but limited

• Marshall Brain and Tom Harris, How GPS Receivers Work

Waheed Khidr is a UK-based freelance journalist.  He writes about technology, society and media. Comments and suggestions may be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at ScienceTech@islam-online.net

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