1.
AMY GOODMAN: President Barack Obama
arrived in Alaska Monday for a three-day tour during which he’ll become the
first sitting U.S. president to visit the Alaska Arctic. In a speech at the GLACIER
conference in Anchorage, Obama highlighted the dangers posed by climate change.
2.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Our
understanding of climate change advances each day. Human activity is disrupting
the climate, in many ways faster than we previously thought. The science is
stark, it is sharpening. It proves that this once-distant threat is now very
much in the present. In fact, the Arctic is the leading edge of climate change,
our leading indicator of what the entire planet faces. Arctic temperatures are
rising about twice as fast as the global average. Over the past 60 years,
Alaska has warmed about twice as fast as the rest of the United States. Last year
was Alaska’s warmest year on record, just as it was for the rest of the world.
And the impacts here are very real.
3.
AMY GOODMAN: As the Arctic region warms,
the geopolitical significance of the region is growing as new areas become
reachable, spurring maritime traffic and oil drilling. During his trip to
Alaska, Obama is expected to propose the U.S. Coast Guard acquire and build new
icebreaking ships that can operate in the Arctic in efforts to keep pace with
Russia and China’s fleets. On Monday, Alaska Governor
Bill Walker, who traveled with Obama to Anchorage, called Russia’s moves in the
Arctic, quote, “the biggest buildup of the Russian military since the Cold War.”
To talk more about the Arctic, we’re joined by investigative journalist
James Bamford, who has covered the National Security Agency and U.S.
intelligence community for the last, well, more than 30 years. He recently
wrote an article
for _Foreign Policy headlined “Frozen Assets: The Newest Front in Global
Espionage is One of the Least Habitable Locales on Earth—the Arctic.” Bamford
points out the resources below the Arctic ice cap are worth over $17 trillion,
the rough equivalent of the entire U.S. economy. Bamford says the region has
become the, quote, “crossroads of technical espionage,” as the United States,
Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark battle for control of those resources. James
Bamford joins us once again from Washington, D.C. Welcome back to Democracy
Now!, Jim. Can you start off by, well, beginning where you began your
piece, in August 2014, with two Norwegian scientists, where they headed?
4.
JAMES BAMFORD: Yeah, thanks, Amy. Yeah, it was
really fascinating doing this article because I knew nothing, almost nothing,
about the Arctic before, and doing all the research, it was fascinating. And
I thought one of the most fascinating little incidents was two Norwegian
scientists who were placed on a little ice island for a year to sort of drift
in areas where even icebreakers couldn’t go, not far from the North Pole. And
they were out there in the total darkness, all by themselves in an area that’s
hardly ever been explored. And one night, they’re looking out, and they see
some lights in the distance. So they go out, and they walk from their little
camp area to these lights. And as they’re getting closer—again, this is total
darkness out there because it’s the Arctic night—they see the lights, and then
they start making out a shape. And it’s the shape of a huge submarine that has
just surfaced. And as they were getting closer, close enough for the people on
the submarine to see them, the submarine then suddenly went back under the
ocean—or, under the Arctic Sea. And what they—they
actually took some pictures of the sub, and what they later determined was that
it was a Russian spy sub. And it had a mini sub on, attached to the
bottom of it, to explore this huge ridge that goes under the Arctic, because
the Russians are trying, as well as almost all the other countries abutting the
Arctic, are trying to show that their continental shelf touches that ridge. And
if you can show that, then you can get much more of the Arctic to your own use.
5.
AMY GOODMAN: You write, “the Arctic has
become the crossroads of technical espionage today.” Explain.
6.
JAMES BAMFORD: Well, the Arctic is a
place where you don’t put many human spies, but it’s a great place for
technical spies, for spy planes, satellites, drones, everything else. So, because of all the military buildup—the Russians are
building up enormously up there, they’ve just built one of the largest
listening posts in the world, 3,000-man, 3,000-person facility—and because of
all the energy underneath that people are trying to get, there’s been an
enormous increase in the number of spy planes, satellites and other kinds of
technical intelligence, submarines and so forth. Just in the last year, the
number of U.S. surveillance flights over the Russian parts of the Arctic have
gone from 22 to 140. And the Russians are doing the same thing. The Russians
are flying surveillance planes very close to the U.S., and the U.S. is flying
surveillance planes very close to Russia. Plus there’s a cat-and-mouse
game under the North Pole, under the Arctic, between the U.S. and Russian
submarines. We have satellites flying overhead every day. The Canadians are
building drones. The Russians just built a new drone base about 400 miles from
the U.S. in the Arctic. So, there’s this enormous buildup, not only of the
military, but what I was focusing on was also on the intelligence capabilities.
7.
AMY GOODMAN: You write that the United
States is sending satellites over this icy region every 30 minutes, “averaging more
than 17,000 passes every year, and [is] developing a new generation of unmanned
intelligence sensors to monitor everything above, on, and below the ice and
water.”
8.
JAMES BAMFORD: Well, the satellites that
pass over the Arctic are the polar satellites, and they’re the ones that take
pictures of most of the Earth. I mean, they focus on all parts of the Earth
because it’s in a polar orbit. So the facility that controls most of those
satellites and sends up instructions and takes down data from the satellites is
located in Thule, Greenland, which is way above the Arctic Circle. So, U.S. has
enormous intelligence assets up there to control these satellites that are
vital to the United States.
9.
AMY GOODMAN: I’d like to ask you about
Russia’s position on the Arctic. In 2013, President
Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s military to increase its presence in the Arctic
after Canada signaled its intention to claim the North Pole and surrounding
waters. Putin talked about Russia, quote, “reclaiming the region.” Let’s go to
a clip.
10.
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: [translated] I would like you
to devote special attention to deploying infrastructure and military units in
the Arctic. Russia is ever-more actively reclaiming this promising region,
returning to it. It must possess all the levers necessary for protecting its
security and national interests.
11.
AMY GOODMAN: So, James Bamford, can you
talk about everything from Russia’s interest to Denmark’s to Norway’s to Canada’s
to the United States’?
12.
JAMES BAMFORD: Sure. These are the countries that border the actual Arctic,
five countries: the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway. And
ironically, you have three countries that are now claiming the North Pole as
theirs: Canada, Russia and Denmark—Denmark because of Greenland, which is a
possession of Denmark, and it’s way up above the Arctic Circle. So, you have these
countries that have vested interests in the Arctic, and they’re all exhibiting
as much effort as possible to show that they deserve more of the Arctic than
anybody else. And you can make claims to the United Nations by saying
that your continental shelf is attached to this ridge. It’s the Lomonosov Ridge. It’s
a long ridge. It’s about a thousand miles. It’s 12,000—12,000 feet high. It’s
an enormous mountain ridge. And if you can show that your continental shelf is
connected to that, your landmass, in essence, is connected to that, then you
could get much more of the Arctic. So there’s this competition among these
countries to show that they deserve more of the Arctic. The Russians are trying
to claim half the Arctic is theirs. So, it’s an enormous battle up there, a
political battle as well as a military and an intelligence frontier. So, that’s
where we are right now. And as the Arctic disappears, pretty soon there’s going to be a
total ice-free summer up there in the next few years. And that means that there’s
going to be a lot more activity in terms of commercial activities, ships
sailing back and forth, tourist ships. There will be a lot of activity.
And the problem is, the United States hasn’t kept up. We have two broken-down
icebreakers that are due to pretty much be out of service in five years, and we
haven’t been paying attention to the Arctic, so we have nothing to take their
place.
13.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what the Law of the Sea agreement
is and how it relates to the Arctic?
14.
JAMES BAMFORD: Sure. The Law of the Sea agreement
was created by the United Nations and agreed to by most countries in the
world. I think 170 countries in the world have signed and ratified the Law of the Sea
agreement. What that is, is an agreement that—it’s sort of the law of
the Arctic at this point, because the Law of the Sea agreement sets out what
countries can do what, and what activities can take place in the Arctic. The irony here is that of the five countries that actually
border the Arctic, and out of 170 countries in the world, the United States is
the only country not to have ratified the agreement. And it’s largely because
of a small group of right-wing Republicans who are afraid of the black
helicopters from the United Nations. They’re afraid that by signing this Law of
the Sea agreement, we’re going to subject our country to the jurisdiction of
the United Nations. So they’ve pretty much stood
in the way of signing that. And that means that we’re not going to be in any
position to claim any parts of the Arctic, because in order to do that, you
actually have to have signed the Law of the Sea agreement, as Russia, Norway,
Canada, Denmark and 170 other countries have done.
15.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, what would it take
to—for the U.S. to sign on to this treaty?
16.
JAMES BAMFORD: Well, all it would take
would be for the Senate to basically ratify it. And it can’t do that as long as
there is a small percentage that are standing in the way. I think you need—it’s
either a third or three-quarters of the Senate to approve the treaty. And you
can’t get that—you can’t get there with the number of right-wing senators
standing in the way. And they’ve been doing that for years. President Bush, for example, when he was in office, just like
President Clinton and President Obama, have all been in favor of signing the
agreement, but it’s these sort of hardcore right-wing senators who have stood
in the way for decades. And that’s why we’re one of the very, very few
countries in the world that have never signed it, and therefore we really are
out of touch when it comes to the Arctic.
17.
AMY GOODMAN: James Bamford, can you talk
about the ways different countries are trying to claim the North Pole,
everything from Canada saying Santa Claus is a Canadian citizen to Russia
planting the flag? The then-deputy speaker of the Duma, explain who he was and
what he did.
18.
JAMES BAMFORD: Well, he was on a very
small Russian submergable, that very small Russian submarine, that went to the
bottom of the Arctic Ocean right under the North Pole, 14,000 feet down, and he
planted a titanium Russian flag down there. I mean, it had no real meaning,
just symbolic, but that’s a metaphor of what’s taking place. The Russians were
reclaiming the North Pole. The Canadians are claiming the North Pole. After the
Russians did it, they claimed the North Pole, and they said, “Santa Claus is a
Canadian citizen,” sort of mocking the Russians in a way. But it’s very
serious. And also, the—Denmark is claiming it also via Greenland. So, it’s very
serious, and most of the effort is focusing on undersea, under the Arctic
Ocean, where countries are trying to take little pieces of this ridge and
analyze it and show that it’s actually part of their continental shelf. It’s a
very scientific effort, more so than—well, it’s political on one side, and then
it’s scientific on the other, and they’re trying to put the two together. And if you can show that your continental shelf is connected
to the ridge, then you’re able to extend your continental shelf and your
ability to capture parts of the Arctic well beyond your borders. And
that’s why this enormous effort’s going on, that really few people have ever
paid any attention to.
19.
AMY GOODMAN: What
would a Cold War—pardon the pun—in the Arctic look like?
20.
JAMES BAMFORD: Well,
it would be certainly dominated by the Russians, since they own the vast
portion of the coastline on the Arctic, and they’ve got the vast majority of
hardware. The Russians, just last March, they had an exercise up there with
almost 40,000 troops. And then the Norwegians sent up 5,000 troops on an
exercise. So, you’d have submarines trailing each other and, you know,
potentially getting in conflict with each other, since the U.S. and the
Russians are both below the Arctic Ocean and following each other constantly.
There would be the danger of aircraft incidents, just like we had in China
where the Chinese shot down an American spy plane, or, actually, collided with
an American spy plane, and the spy plane had to land on Chinese territory. So,
you’ve got all these areas of potential conflict. Accidents may happen, and
weapons may be fired.
21.
AMY GOODMAN: What are your thoughts on
President Obama being the first sitting U.S. president to go to the Alaskan
Arctic, this coming right after he allows Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic?
As they talk about sending more icebreaking ships up there, the U.S.
government, are they also doing that on behalf of the oil companies?
22.
JAMES BAMFORD: Well, we don’t have really
hardly any icebreaking ships. We just have two, and they’re almost on their
last voyages or so. They’ve only got a few more years left. So, no, in answer
to your question, the problem is, what was he doing for the previous seven
years or so, previous six years? This problem has been there for a long time. The Russians have been building up along the Arctic coast for
years, if not decades, and the U.S. has been paying absolutely no attention to
it until just now. So, the problem is, you’ve got a really hazardous situation
up there, where you’ve authorized offshore oil drilling, such as Shell, for
example—and they’re just the first—but you have no infrastructure up there to
protect the Arctic or the shoreline in case you have an oil spill like we had
down in the Gulf of Mexico. The Russians have 41 icebreakers. I think it’s at
least seven of those are nuclear power. We have no nuclear-powered icebreakers,
and we only have two broken-down icebreakers. So we’re way out of touch when it
comes to taking care of the Arctic in case there is a major oil spill or a ship
disaster up there, or a search and rescue. We have very little, if any,
search-and-rescue capability. We have no deepwater ports on the Arctic. So, we’re
way out of touch. We’re years behind. And, you know, finally, in his twilight
years, Obama has decided that we should start paying attention up there. It’s sort of
amazing to me he hasn’t, or nobody in his administration has brought this to
his attention before now.
23.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you, Jim
Bamford, for being with us, columnist for Foreign Policy magazine. We’ll
link to your piece,
“Frozen Assets: The Newest Front in Global Espionage is One of the Least
Habitable Locales on Earth—the Arctic.” He has covered the National Security
Agency and intelligence communities for years. This is Democracy Now!,
democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.
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