U.S. spy satellites eyeing Iraqi army

WASHINGTON — Caught off guard by recent Iraqi military operations, the United States is using spy satellites that ordinarily are trained on adversaries to monitor the movements of the U.S.-backed Iraqi army, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The stepped-up surveillance reflects breakdowns in trust and coordination between the two forces. Officials said it is part of an expanded intelligence effort launched after American commanders were surprised by the timing of the Iraqi army's violent push into Basra three months ago.

The use of the satellites puts the United States in the unusual position of employing some of its most sophisticated espionage technology to track an allied army that American forces helped create, continue to advise, and often fight alongside.

U.S. satellites are "imaging military installations that the Iraqi army occupies," said a former U.S. military official, who said slides from the images have been used in recent closed briefings at U.S. facilities in the Middle East. "They're imaging training areas that the Iraqi army utilizes. They're imaging roads that Iraqi armored vehicles and large convoys transit."

Military officials and experts said the move shows concern by U.S. commanders about whether their Iraqi counterparts will follow American guidance or keep their coalition partners fully informed.

"It suggests that we don't have complete confidence in their chain of command, or in their willingness to tell us what they're going to do because they may fear that we may try to get them not to do it," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site about intelligence and military issues.

But the development also was seen as a sign that the Iraqi army has reached a level of independence and competence that U.S. military planners had hoped it would achieve.

"The bad news is we're spying on Iraqis," said the former military official. "The good news is that we have to."

The former military official and several other sources described the operation on condition of anonymity because of its sensitivity. The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment about the mission.

However, the expanded satellite surveillance comes as the Iraqi military has embarked on a series of large-scale operations to reassert government control in areas, including Sadr City and Mosul, that have been havens for hostile militias and insurgents.

The first of the operations, launched in March, was an assault in the southern port city of Basra on elements of the Mahdi Army, a militia led by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Among the forces Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki deployed were units that had just completed training and did not have a U.S. team assigned to them, which may help explain why U.S. commanders were so caught off guard.

Despite tactical shortcomings, the operation since has been portrayed as a major success, a demonstration that the Iraqi army, once viewed as ineffectual, if not incompetent, was emerging as a capable force.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month: "They moved a division inside a few days. And a year ago the Iraqi security forces could never have moved those kinds of forces."

Iraq's parched terrain has been a focal point of U.S. spy satellites for nearly two decades. Satellites were used to capture images of suspected chemical and biological weapons sites before the war, although the suspicions were proved unfounded, and continue to be used to track insurgent movements and the influx of arms from Iran.

The satellites are part of a vast intelligence arsenal that the United States has deployed in Iraq, including the CIA's largest overseas station, eavesdropping equipment that monitors much of the country's telephone and e-mail traffic, as well as Predators and other aircraft that survey the Iraqi landscape from the sky.

But in recent months, U.S. intelligence agencies have aimed the spacecrafts' high-resolution lenses at Iraqi military positions, and instructed imagery analysts to monitor those units for signs that they are preparing to deploy, officials said.

"What the satellites can do that Predators can't is they can see the country," the former official said. "They can detect big movements every day: That the Iraqi 4th Infantry division is here. That Iraqi special forces moved from here. That there is a set of 12 vehicles congregated south of Samara."

U.S. intelligence officials stressed that the satellites are not being diverted from other high-priority assignments — including tracking terrorist and insurgent activity — but are capturing additional images as part of routine, low-orbit sweeps over the country.

Officials also stressed that the surveillance does not reflect an adversarial relationship between the U.S. and Iraqi militaries. The two continue to coordinate closely and conduct joint operations, officials said, with U.S. military training teams embedded in Iraqi army units. The satellites provide U.S. officials with an independent means of tracking those movements.

But their use also reflects a gradual shift taking place as the Iraqi government becomes more independent from its U.S. sponsor, and the two countries' interests diverge. Iraq has recently taken a series of steps, including providing a red-carpet reception in March for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that demonstrate it doesn't intend to remain a U.S. client.

Even though the United States essentially installed the Iraqi government and helped build its institutions, U.S. spy agencies have been active in the country from the beginning, keeping close tabs on Iraqi politicians and influential groups.

Officials said the satellite surveillance is aimed to a large degree at making sure U.S. commanders know where the Iraqi army is operating so the two forces don't collide.

"You have an independent army for an independent nation conducting independent operations," said the senior U.S. intelligence official. "To know where that army is so you don't have an unintended consequence would seem like a benefit."

American spy satellites are operated by the National Reconnaissance Office, a U.S. intelligence agency based in Chantilly, Va., that is so secretive that its existence was not declassified until 1992. Rick Oborn, a spokesman for the NRO, declined to comment.

"As a matter of policy, we do not discuss our taskings," Oborn said.

Experts said that the Iraq surveillance likely involves what are known as "Keyhole" satellites, which are spacecraft that are the size of a school bus, orbit at about 170 miles above the Earth's surface and are equipped with optical and infrared lenses that can capture high-resolution images day or night.

The NRO is believed to operate at least six of these satellites, said Jeffrey T. Richelson, an expert on satellites and senior fellow at the National Security Archive, a research institute at George Washington University.