Sometime around dawn on the first day of the 1991 Gulf
War, Ted Molczan was woken by a mysterious phone call. Molczan had been
up until 3:30 am in his Toronto apartment, riveted by the televised
images of Tomahawk missiles raining down on Baghdad, so he was groggy
when the phone rang. A male voice with a thick accent said: "I know
you’re involved in satellite tracking.
I’m interested in doing a
trade." The caller offered Molczan information on the orbiting patterns
of a constellation of eight US satellites. In exchange, he wanted to
know the orbits for the CIA’s KH-11 "Keyhole" satellites – from space
they can discern an object as small as a softball, and they were
sending US forces hi-res digital imagery of Iraq and Kuwait.
The man made no apology for the early hour and wouldn’t say why he
wanted the information. But one thing was clear: He had found the right
guy.
Molczan, an energy conservation consultant, was just becoming known
for his skill at a most unusual hobby. In his spare time, he likes to
take binoculars and a stopwatch onto the balcony of his high-rise
apartment and track clandestine US spy satellites. There are thousands
of amateur satellite observers active today, but Molczan is a leader of
an informal group of 20 or so who specialize in so-called black
satellites, the orbits of which are not disclosed, and the existence of
which is often classified. Molczan and his band of associates monitor
some 140 classified US satellites, like the Lacrosse radar imaging
satellites, which can see through cloud cover and darkness and produce
photo-quality images of targets on Earth.
By Patrick Radden Keefe
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