FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2003
Aussie spy station could be US eye on Iraq
AP
SYDNEY: Australia has deployed 2,000 troops to fight alongside US and British forces in Iraq. But a secret spy station that it operates with America in the Outback could be playing a far greater part in coalition efforts to disarm Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein, a defence analyst said Friday.
The joint Australian-US Pine Gap communications base outside the central city of Alice Springs is a cluster of low buildings and huge golf ball-like antennas that listens to signals from around the world.
It is almost certainly being used to eavesdrop on communications inside Iraq, said Desmond Ball of the Australian National University, who has written a book about the base.
And it probably played a role in the initial attacks on Iraq on Thursday by the US coalition, said Ball. Among targets struck was a bunker in southern Baghdad, after intelligence indicated that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other members of his National Security Council were there.
The success of that strike remains unclear, and footage of Saddam appeared later on Iraqi television, indicating he had survived the strike.
"The signals interception side would have been very active, very useful in the determination of the targeting set which was in fact hit over the past 36 hours," said Ball, who has written a book about Pine Gap.
The Australian government Friday declined to comment on whether Pine Gap has played such role.
Ball suggested that Pine Gap would also have warned coalition forces that Iraq had retaliated with a salvo of missiles fired toward Kuwait.
Two missiles, possibly Scuds, were brought down by US Patriot missiles.
A US defence support program infrared satellite stationed over the Indian Ocean would have detected the Iraqi missiles in flight.
The satellite signal would then have been beamed to Pine Gap and relayed to Washington, Canberra and to coalition commanders in the Persian Gulf, Ball said.
One of Pine Gap's most vocal opponents, Denis Dougherty, said the base not only works out the coordinates of a target, it also takes visuals of the damage done and then re-targets the missiles.
"They detect if any Iraq missiles have been fired from the plumes of smoke and then get coordinates to strike the origin and they also intercept electronic communications to work out if its a civilian or military hub," Dougherty said.
Dougherty said the base, which was built in 1967, had 1,000 personnel, 500 Australian and 500 Americans, with a US commander. Other observers say it has more than 850 staff.
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