Posted on 12/19/2005 9:58:50 PM PST by neverdem
When Google introduced Google Earth, free software that marries satellite and aerial images with mapping capabilities, the company emphasized its usefulness as a teaching and navigation tool, while advertising the pure entertainment value of high-resolution flyover images of the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the pyramids.
But since its debut last summer, Google Earth has received attention of an unexpected sort. Officials of several nations have expressed alarm over its detailed display of government buildings, military installations and other important sites within their borders.
India, whose laws sharply restrict satellite and aerial photography, has been particularly outspoken. "It could severely compromise a country's security," V. S. Ramamurthy, secretary in India's federal Department of Science and Technology, said of Google Earth. And India's surveyor general, Maj. Gen. M. Gopal Rao, said, "They ought to have asked us."
Similar sentiments have surfaced in news reports from other countries. South Korean officials have said they fear that Google Earth lays bare details of military installations. Thai security officials said they intended to ask Google to block images of vulnerable government buildings. And Lt. Gen. Leonid Sazhin, an analyst for the Federal Security Service, the Russian security agency that succeeded the K.G.B., was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying: "Terrorists don't need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them."
But there is little they can do, it seems, but protest.
Google Earth is the most conspicuous recent instance of increased openness in a digitally networked world, where information that was once carefully guarded is now widely available on personal computers. Many security experts agree that such increased transparency - and the discomfort that it produces - is an inevitable byproduct of the Internet's power and reach.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
DigitalGlobe, via Google Earth
Views of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower were part of the initial appeal of Google Earth. But its ability to show government buildings, military installations and other sites has alarmed officials in several nations.
alt title, Google spies for the enemy for free
That google earth is absolutely addicting if your a map/geography junkie like myself. One of the first things I checked out was North Korea and aside from Pyongyang, the two largest other developed areas I could find were both prison camps.
Be it checking out downtown Kampala, looking at Brazilian Rainforest clear cutting, or tracing rivers through the Sahara, you can't beat that program.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"-Hillary Clinton
(Yes, she really said that
Peggy Noonan
The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)
This service has been available for a fee for some time. At some point in the future, when private industry takes over space travel and exploration and NASA is defunded (couldn't come a day too soon), there will be even more information available to the common citizen. Will that be 'spying for the enemy as well'?
I'm right there with ya, O_E!
MI PING!
The Leftist sites, "globalsecurity.org" and FIS, have been doing this as well - in addition to publishing American troop movements, vehicle schematics, and weapons performance.
Their creator, John Pike, will never be brought to task for his weakening of America. He's the darling of the MSM, and is trotted out for every "expert" slam they create.
I always urge people never to give these Leftists the Web hits and the ad dollars they so desperately need.
That isn't the KREMLIN that is St Basils CATHEDRAL. While bombing it would be a sick act and destroy an amazing beautiful CHURCH the KREMLIN would shrug. The KREMLIN is located about 1000 feet LEFT of your photo.
It looks like Ike Eisenhower's "Open Sky Policy" has arrived, with a vengeance!
No shit?
What else would you expect from a country that has few aircraft and no satellites?
There's probably some religious prohibition against having your picture taken from 100 miles away...
I used Google Earth yesterday to check out the home I moved from 3 years ago:
sure enough, my red Bronco was sitting there in the side yard.
(Does this suggest to you in the tinfoil hat brigade how current this data is?)
"There's probably some religious prohibition against having your picture taken from 100 miles away..."
Yeah, they are probably afraid of seeing a cow and bull go at it!
Insurgents 'using Google Earth' (marries satellite and aerial images with mapping abilities)
London Sunday Telegraph ^ | 12/18/2005) | Jasper Copping
Posted on 12/18/2005 11:51:22 AM EST by Former Military Chick
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1542859/posts
What on earth are you talking about? India has their own space program, launches their own satellites, and they have quite a few in orbit right now.
Actually you did. I would suggest you do a Google search on NASA's Worldwind. A program much like Google Earth downloadable for free. But paid for out of your tax dollars. It gives you about 7 different satellite views. Look at Washington DC under the USGS Urban Area Ortho view. Quite the clear picture down almost to the cars. Hmmmmm, maybe NASA's helping the 'terrorists' too?
It's a false headline; the first lines of the article states Insurgents COULD be using Google Earth; it's pure speculation.
There currently isn't a single scrap of evidence that terrorists anywhere in the world have ever used Google Earth to plan an attack.
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