George Clooney's satellite spies reveal secrets of Sudan's bloody army

Actor and activist funds from a high-tech project is the monitoring of troops and civilians against attacks Warning

Nathaniel Raymond is the first to admit he has an unusual job description. "I have the tank space to George Clooney," said the native of height, tolerant of Massachusetts while sitting in a conference room at a map of the Darfur region of South Kordofan.

nearby, pins and ink doodles on the map detail the positions of the Sudanese armed forces and refugee populations in the restive oil-producing province, where the Sudanese army is conducting a brutal repression.

the wall next to Raymond has a series of images projected on it by satellite. In the film a mouse, small images of tanks and military vehicles came into view, trapped by a few hundred miles above satellite.

Raymond is the director of the Sentinel satellite (SSP), which aims to use advanced satellite imagery to monitor potential human rights violations in Sudan. And it was all thought of Clooney, making it just another Hollywood liberal with a pet cause and a true expert and activist in Sudan. With John Prendergast, another activist, Clooney slipped several times in the country to document the random bombing of civilians and other atrocities.

After a trip last month in the Nuba Mountains, Clooney dodged rockets and returned with grisly images of dead bodies, children with hands missing and entire villages are forced to live in caves. He showed the film to the Committee on Senate Foreign Relations in Washington DC - to the praise of politicians met -. Then arrested in a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy

Clooney pictures taken in handcuffs appeared in newspapers and blogs around the world. But he is at work Sentinel satellite project every day that really felt the impact Clooney. He had the idea, and I spoke to Google and DigitalGlobe satellite company to help set up, and donated large speaking fees to keep it funded. It has been running for 15 months already.

The situation in Sudan is complex and violent. Since the majority of black South Sudan in Africa gained independence from the border dominated by northern Arabs dispute exploded last year, especially over oil resources in the region. Meanwhile, powerful figures in the fear that the northern provinces along the southern border with his new neighbor can also try to free themselves from Khartoum.

The military campaign is designed to discourage such hopes, or even change the ethnic composition of the region for groups that want to continue with Khartoum.

• Headquartered in any set of offices near Harvard Square, in the Boston suburb of Cambridge, Raymond leads a small team of staff and student volunteers who monitor developments on the ground in the heart of this which is practically a war zone. Every day Raymond and his team gather in what is called the "situation room" and news and reports from Sudan are analyzed. Also satellite images carefully and compare them to a database of previous moves, looking for changes, such as new roads or in military camps, or the troops in motion.
• One day last week, staff card SSP Britain was news analysis from Sudan to describe a visit to Governor of two fields that are listed as points of mobilization forces Popular Defense, a militant group widely used in repressive actions by the government. Isaac Baker of experts NOT pictures taken two rectangles to cover both sides. "We have a recent build in it," Raymond says. Baker began playing on an application of satellite imagery and fresh as the map of Raymond discussed the camp to see if a single picture can be taken. "One in the East," he said at last. Using satellite imagery such advanced and be able to start and take pictures within hours of receiving the reports of the earth, the SAP can effectively recover and analyze the evolution of the conflict. "Do not move the pieces on the chessboard. But we must know what they mean," said Raymond.

Aa SSP

work was originally designed primarily as collecting evidence that could be used in war crimes tribunal the future leaders of Sudan. But the image was so accurate that it could also be used to monitor requests for massacres and mass graves. After someone on the ground described seeing the bodies buried in a mango grove in the town of Kadugli, the SAP was able to document the site of the air. He also discovered what appeared to be body bags found in fresh graves in other parts of the city.

also showed the troops around the towns and villages burned. In an amazing set of images, even caught a transport plane Antonov - Sudan's regular forces drop bombs - caught in flight with smoke plumes, where explosives were thrown against civilian targets

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