TERRORISTS OF THE LTTE ARE DANGEROUSLY BECOMING ABLE TO USE SPACE TECHNOLOGY TO SPY AND GATHER INFORMATION

By Walter Jayawardhana

Writing an op-ed piece in the Indian Express newspaper a research fellow of India’s Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis said with commercial satellite networks it is dangerously possible for terrorist organizations like the LTTE to gather at least some information in terms of intelligence and reconnaissance .

“Most modern states do this through their aerospace forces. The real danger is if the LTTE is already making use of all these facilities to augment whatever form of air power it has, then this two-decade-old unresolved conflict is only going to get messier,” said Ajey Lele , the research fellow , commenting about , the terrorist group pirating the services of the communication giant Intelsat.

Lele said , the possibility of using satellite services under proxy identities makes the task of identification very complex. This Intelsat incidence shows that satellite technology is a complex matter and it is not possible to turn off the services immediately. Unfortunately, the irony is that today terrorist organisations like the LTTE uses that to augment its flying power, he pointed out.
He said the LTTE is exploring the possibilities of using space assets procured commercially to spread terror.

“. This cannot but be an alarming development for not just Sri Lanka but India , given its close proximity to this theatre of conflict,” the writer pointed out.

The article further pointed out, “Today, terrorist organisations are using various mediums for their ‘information warfare’ through the Internet. So there is nothing particularly unusual for the LTTE to use space as a medium for the same purpose. But when viewed against the backdrop of its recent successes in carrying out airborne attacks, it definitely raises many concerns.”

Lele further said that , In comparison with any airforce of any developing nation, the LTTE’s so-called air power is extremely rudimentary. What is important to note, however, is its intent in investing in such activities. Trained manpower, technology and huge infrastructure are pre-requisites of any airforce.

But that may not be the case with space technologies. The LTTE has shown that it is possible to use commercially available space technologies for ‘military’ purposes. Today, it is easy to purchase even sub-metre resolution imagery through commercial satellite constellations, use GPS for target identification and transmit both video and voice information on a real-time basis. Also the use of satellite communication for terrorism purposes is found to be common with many terrorist organisations.