“At this point any satellite image of anyplace in the world can easily be purchased online. It’s silly to think of these images as a ‘secret’. It’s not 1965 anymore.”
The military photos are higher resolution. It is not what is shown here but how good/bad our technology is.
Yes, and the tweeted photo was a cell phone pic of the real photo...
But as the article points out, knowing the timing of the photo allowed amateur and professional sleuthers to figure out which satellite captured the photo, which tells a peer adversary which satellite needs to be taken out if you don’t want any photos in a given area at a given time. This is the real reason for the sensitivity.
“It is not what is shown here but how good/bad our technology is.”
Reminds me of that movie “Enemy of the State” with Gene Hackman. The government guys are trying to find him and are using real-time satellites that are able to stay above the subject for some period of time.
They see somebody dressed like him but they aren’t sure.
Old guy: “Come on - look up!”
Young Guy: “Why are you hoping he looks up?”
OG: “So we can see his face!”
YG: “Well that’s stupid - what good are they then?” [the satellies]
I guess that must be a fairly old movie. I imagine today they have enough cameras everywhere that they could have real-time camera views along with their satellite views.