Camp Mirage. It’s called that because it’s not supposed to really exist. But it does, and it has a healthy contingent of Canadians supporting military operations in Afghanistan. Few civilians are permitted to visit this facility, but Business Edge technology correspondent Tom Keenan is there, and will also be travelling to Canadian Forces Camp Julien near Kabul. This is the first of a three-part series on the technologies used by Canadians behind and on the front lines.

Here’s his first dispatch . . .

Canadian Forces Camp Mirage

Technology is making peacekeeping, and everyday life, just a little easier for members of the Canadian Forces stationed at Camp Mirage, the mysterious Canadian "sustainment base" that supports Operation ATHENA, Canada's UN-authorized mission in Afghanistan.

Photo by Cpl. Henry Wall, National Support Unit Arabian Gulf Region Image Tech
Cpl Chris Milne, with Operation Apollo's Tactical Airlift Detachment, monitors the air navigator's workstation on a C-130 Hercules during maintenance.

Soldiers in the camp's oversized quonset hut of a mess hall watch live Canadian television. By satellite. If you're up early for breakfast you can catch the previous night's Global TV News live from Edmonton. I can't tell you just how early, because that might give away the location of Camp Mirage. For reasons of political sensitivity, this place is not to be identified, except to say that it's "somewhere in Southwest Asia." That puts it a good 10,000 kilometres, give or take, away from Jasper Avenue. Yet the good and the bad news from Alberta's capital make it over here in real time.

Santa Claus arrives at a shopping mall. Teachers threaten to strike. A marijuana grow-op is busted. And it's all played out on a big TV screen for the soldiers, and a handful of civilians, as they wolf down the four substantial meals that they're offered every day.

Luckily, there are two gyms (in much smaller quonset huts) with some anti-obesity technologies such as treadmills and fitness balls.

Veterans of several peacekeeping rotations really like that satellite TV from Canada. "I remember when we just first got Canadian radio," says one, and "it was only CBC." Of course, today they could simply listen to Canadian radio on the Internet.

The base's Internet café is open and in use 24/7. It's an effective tool for keeping in touch with the folks back home. Soldiers are allotted only two free "welfare calls" each week and the phones cut them off without warning after 15 minutes.

The Internet fills the communication gap quite nicely, even allowing Forces members to see digital pictures of their kids growing up. One fellow says he saves his phone calls to hear his young children's voices, and to "sort out things with my wife that she may have misunderstood in e-mail." Ah, but the atmosphere of the cyber-café is a little different at 4 a.m. than it is at 4 p.m. An afternoon visit finds people answering e-mails and calmly chatting to loved ones on Instant Messenger. However, four in the morning reveals a slightly more raucous crowd of young men, checking out hot chicks online.

Access to sites such as playboy.com is blocked, and there's a posted policy forbidding "material that could be construed as pornographic." But one soldier shows me a radio station's "Babe of the Day" site that he certainly enjoys.

The more optimistic young men, especially those who are close to going home, log on to the LavaLife dating service and try to pre-arrange dates. Anything is possible in the mind of a young guy who's just spent six months unloading airplanes in 50°C heat, at a "dry" camp where all alcohol is confiscated at the gate.

In the mess hall there's a screen displaying upcoming events. And, of course, it lists church services. The padres here are no dummies. They note that Sunday services are "Now Serving Tim Hortons Coffee." Presumably that's good bait to bring homesick Canadians to the "Way of Peace Chapel." Technology even allows you to write to the troops directly, if you know any of them personally. A monitored message board (see Web watch, below) accepts messages of up to 500 characters. Senior officers at the base say they sometimes read the e-mails over the PA system. Many come from kids and some smack of being class projects.

"Patrick, Jordan and Ben" of Summerside, P.E.I. write: Hi! How are you doing? Is it sunny over there? It's cold here but no snow. We have no NHL hockey here yet this year. We get out of school on Dec. 17th for Christmas break. Hope you have a happy Christmas.

- Love Patrick, Jordan and Ben. :-) "Salena" of Edmonton gets right to the point: Hey Everyone, I just joined air cadets and am getting right into the forces. I'm in grade nine and was wondering if someone could tell me what's like to fly for canada?

And then there's the touching, if poorly spelled, submission from "Chris, somewhere in Canada:" thank you for keeping are country saf. I was worried that thay were going to win.

It's perhaps indicative of how busy these soldiers are that they can't reply to all the letters, let alone correct the spelling and grammar. But they do try to send replies to classes of school kids, and everyone here insists that supportive e-mails, letters and drawings do indeed boost morale.

Knowing that there must be some sort of Internet content filtering in place here, I surfed around until I received a polite but firm electronic slap on the wrist. The screen admonished me that "the site you requested is not available in accordance with the Internet, Acceptable Use of the Internet, Defence Intranet and Other Electronic Networks, and Computers policy." Fair enough, because the information behind that site could reveal the precise location of Camp Mirage, and that's not supposed to happen. The irony, of course, is that almost anyone in the world outside the DND computer network can view that site freely. Of course, I'm not going to tell you what it is.

So technology can be a threat as well as a boon to those serving here.

Using mobile phones is prohibited in the camp, to keep sensitive information from leaking out and prevent the possible tracking of the location. GPS receivers are confiscated from visitors and on-base photography is prohibited.

In fact, they're not keen on any kind of electronic device. A member of our group got some concerned looks when she pulled out her Blackberry. It turns out she was only taking notes, but even the chance of a rogue wireless device loose in this camp was alarming to our military escorts.

So in a world where the military relies more and more on technology, electronics in the hands of civilians make soldiers nervous.

Fair enough - they have a job to do and we don't want to make it any harder or more dangerous. So we all comply.

We know things are going to get even more interesting as we travel to Camp Julien, near Kabul. So stay tuned to this space, for a report from one of the most dangerous places Canadians are serving.

They're eager to show us how they're working to thwart terrorism, build infrastructure, promote democracy in the ravaged country and also come home in one piece.

(Tom Keenan is a professor at the University of Calgary and an expert on technology and its social implications. He can be reached at keenan@businessedge.ca)