Terrorist suspect search goes hi tech

Searching for terrorist suspect Osama Bin Laden has once again become a hi-tech affair.

The US and the West are employing the muscle of satellites to track down terrorist training camps and reconnaissance planes that can take clear pictures from a distance of a hundred miles.

Such pictures, and satellite systems, will be used to help guide special forces towards targets in Afghanistan, and by special forces units to assist air strikes in reaching specified targets, according to Reuters.

The Western allies are also using an airborne version of GCHQ, the RC 135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft. Experts describe it as a huge electronic vacuum cleaner, due to its power to pick up radio communications and enemy radar.

As the weather worsens, ground units will find tools such as night-sight goggles become more efficient as heat sources (humans) contrast more sharply with the cold. Tiny mobile sensors are being placed in caves to signal when they are in use.

But no matter how hi-tech the equipment, the Western forces are reliant on responding quickly to their information as the terrorist suspects move around Afghanistan.

The targets aren't using satellite phones, which the West could track easily.