Google Earth Used By Terrorist?

[HardOCP News]

It isn’t a stretch to think that terrorist could use Google Earth to help plot attacks and such but what responsibility, if any, does Google have to help prevent it?

Google has long operated under a philosophy that holds the company responsible for freeing up as much of the world's information as possible. I'm not suggesting that needs to change – it has done infinitely more good than bad -- but that the questions and problems arising from that quest will only get louder and more severe.

 

[SCSI-Terminator]

You could ask the same question to Rand McNally, and what they have done to ensure their maps aren't being used by terrorists.

Face it, google maps is a tool, that much like a knife, can be used to do good or evil.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

Just another in a nearly infinite line of strategic and tactical FKups on the part of the Bush administration and Pentagon in the conduct of this alleged war.

How could you ever allow access to data from the war zone by anyone other than the Pentagon/whitehouse/congress. How could Google/whoevertheyboughtout ever allow the data from the war zone... including the gulf (navy), arabian sea (navy), gulf state bases(army/navy/af), etc... to be accessed by anyone but US.

My answer as the DoD to Google's infraction is to test one of my anti-satellite weapons and DESTROY the satellite(s) in question. Assuming its Google's infraction and not the Pentagon.

But seriously, one of the key items on the list at the preperation inception for war is to BLACKOUT all intelligence from the potential warzone to cover my actions amassing troops and material.

As usual they FK'd that up like just baout everything else you can think of in regards to this mess.

Other places should be blacked out FOREVER and ALWAYS, like WrightPatterson, and DiegoGarcia where prospective enemies would be able to see BOMBER preperations hours in advance of an action. Any any and all nuclear weapons facilities, etc. Even jerk-off's "ranch".

 

[Crosshairs]

Just another in a nearly infinite line of strategic and tactical FKups on the part of the Bush administration and Pentagon in the conduct of this alleged war.

See....I knew this was Bush's fault...

I'm pretty sure he is to blame for the potholes in my roads too..I just gotta look into it a bit further...

 

[Draax]

This is almost as classic as Geraldo Rivera telling everyone the coming troop movements, from the ground, prior to them going on mission .... now he got kicked from Iraq for doing so .... but none the less .... the laughs keep coming.

 

[knight3058]

OK, so they can use it as a tool to map out where to bomb us. They can get similar information from almost any travel site. Should we stop them as well? Google Earth is not an up to date as the minute ticks showing of satalite data/photography. They(terrorists or anyone for that matter) will never get an up to date anything off of it. It uses satalite photos, some of them YEARS old. I can still look at my house and see my old Mustang, which I have not had for more than 2 years. So do not worry about them/us/whoever seeing Wright Patterson, or any base for that matter. They/we/whoever will see what the USM wants them to see. Nothing more. The photos are given to google from the US Military. Google does not have it's own satalites taking orbital shots of the Earth.

 

[RandomNY]

Just think of the uproar, in a few years, when MICROSOFT finishes rolling out it's 3D EARTH maps of every major CITY across the globe...

So then the terrorists can see what floor they want to bomb.

But the point was made, you could blame RAND McNally for printing maps and keeping them up to date on a yearly basis..

 

[zero_vertical]

Just another in a nearly infinite line of strategic and tactical FKups on the part of the Bush administration and Pentagon in the conduct of this alleged war.

How could you ever allow access to data from the war zone by anyone other than the Pentagon/whitehouse/congress. How could Google/whoevertheyboughtout ever allow the data from the war zone... including the gulf (navy), arabian sea (navy), gulf state bases(army/navy/af), etc... to be accessed by anyone but US.

you act as if the satellite is owned by google, and google earth is actually showing current images. the google earth images of my home town are 4 years old (at least). lol

lot of good it'll do for the terrorists to be planning attacks against troop installations that were in place 4 years ago.

Typical liberal: Out to criticize anything to do with Bush, with the only prerequisite being a complete lack of thought or analysis.

zv

 

[Draax]

Typical liberal

Stereotyping FTL

 

[zero_vertical]

Stereotyping FTL

stereotyping implies making baseless assumptions. i think i had plenty of how this person feels to make my case - particularly bashing president bush on a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with the president.

so - analysis to conclude FTW

zv

 

[Draax]

stereotyping implies making baseless assumptions. i think i had plenty of how this person feels to make my case - particularly bashing president bush on a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with the president.

so - analysis to conclude FTW

zv

Your baseless assumption is that the poster was somehow typical of those with liberal views, further more you assumed that the poster was a liberal to begin with ....... FAIL

 

[jmroberts70]

I have had similar concerns --but they were YEARS ago. This sort of geographical data has been available on the web for quite a long time if you know where to look. I was able to map out the military base I was working on as an airport airfield manager using aerial orthographic photos downloaded from the web back in 2002. I know the pics were usually quite a few years old but that doesn't mean that the buildings moved. I was able to put together quite a detailed layout of not only our base, but Los Angeles International Airport, and just about anywhere else in the US I wanted. Now Rand McNally doesn't print maps like that! It was always in the back of my mind that if I wanted to plan a systematic attack on a major US facility, this sort of intormation would be invaluable to me. But how do you stop this sort of information from being public? Google just happened to make it easy to use and quite flashy. Hell, most of the work I did back in '02 needed to be composited in Photoshop and scaled in AutoCAD before any of it was of much use.

 

[CyberDeus-RagDoll]

you act as if the satellite is owned by google, and google earth is actually showing current images. the google earth images of my home town are 4 years old (at least). lol

The google earth image over my house shows a house that is being built across the street from me.
The house isn't finished yet, .

red circle is my house
blue circle is home under construction.

The home under construction STILL doesn't have a lawn, so the picture of the dirt is accurate,

Now, do you think it takes 4 years to build a house?

 

[zero_vertical]

Your baseless assumption is that the poster was somehow typical of those with liberal views, further more you assumed that the poster was a liberal to begin with ....... FAIL

wow you're naive.

 

[zero_vertical]

The google earth image over my house shows a house that is being built across the street from me.
The house isn't finished yet, .

red circle is my house
blue circle is home under construction.

The home under construction STILL doesn't have a lawn, so the picture of the dirt is accurate,

Now, do you think it takes 4 years to build a house?

some is older, but according to google, it varies widely between 1 and 3 years old. my guess would be the shots of the desert in the middle east are not top priority.

zv

 

[Spazilton]

The only thing I don't believe is right about Google Earth, is that I could get enough detail to see my car in the parking lot when I was stationed at Naval Station Norfolk.

I could also see every ship and what pier they were at. That bothered me a little bit.,

 

[zero_vertical]

The only thing I don't believe is right about Google Earth, is that I could get enough detail to see my car in the parking lot when I was stationed at Naval Station Norfolk.

I could also see every ship and what pier they were at. That bothered me a little bit.,

the people we need to worry about knowing where our giant destroyers and aircraft carriers are ahve imagry far superior to that of Google Earth. The largest naval fleet in the history of the world will be okay with Google Earth out there, i guarantee it.

zv

 

[Draax]

wow you're naive.

Nope. you just fail on multiple levels.

 

[zero_vertical]

Nope. you just fail on multiple levels.

ORLY?

 

[rayman2k2]

Your baseless assumption is that the poster was somehow typical of those with liberal views, further more you assumed that the poster was a liberal to begin with ....... FAIL

Typical liberal

 

[rayman2k2]

Crap, but to add something productive, Google Earth still shows stacks of drywall sitting outside our house from when we had our basement finished...TWO YEARS ago

 

[Ockie]

Just another in a nearly infinite line of strategic and tactical FKups on the part of the Bush administration and Pentagon in the conduct of this alleged war.

How could you ever allow access to data from the war zone by anyone other than the Pentagon/whitehouse/congress. How could Google/whoevertheyboughtout ever allow the data from the war zone... including the gulf (navy), arabian sea (navy), gulf state bases(army/navy/af), etc... to be accessed by anyone but US.

My answer as the DoD to Google's infraction is to test one of my anti-satellite weapons and DESTROY the satellite(s) in question. Assuming its Google's infraction and not the Pentagon.

But seriously, one of the key items on the list at the preperation inception for war is to BLACKOUT all intelligence from the potential warzone to cover my actions amassing troops and material.

As usual they FK'd that up like just baout everything else you can think of in regards to this mess.

Other places should be blacked out FOREVER and ALWAYS, like WrightPatterson, and DiegoGarcia where prospective enemies would be able to see BOMBER preperations hours in advance of an action. Any any and all nuclear weapons facilities, etc. Even jerk-off's "ranch".

Can somone yell out liberal?

 

[zero_vertical]

Typical liberal

pwnd!!

 

[Joves]

The google earth image over my house shows a house that is being built across the street from me.
The house isn't finished yet, .

red circle is my house
blue circle is home under construction.

The home under construction STILL doesn't have a lawn, so the picture of the dirt is accurate,

Now, do you think it takes 4 years to build a house?

Depends on who is building it. Seriously though. Terrorists already have the information they need despite what google or, anyonelse has. While yes that image was shot today or,close to it, you cant monitor the image live. And that is what you would need to run an operation from home. Remeber the terrorist come here, live regular boring lives and, stake out and, plan their attack carefully first. Any information you need on something is freely available.

 

[Ockie]

I think things like Flight Simulator or even e-books online are even more dangerous.

 

[jmroberts70]

I think things like Flight Simulator or even e-books online are even more dangerous.

That's right! In fact, I often thought that the 911 terrorists could probably have used MS Flight Simulator to train for stearing the jetliners just as easily as in flight school since they really only needed to know about manipulating the controlls and stearing. I bet earlier versions of Flight Simulator even had the WTC buildings properly located. I know that there were some changes made to that kind of software after 911 but just what those changes were I don't know.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

So I'm a liberal?

For the record, I authorized and in fact insist the administration to fire up Anthrax production and sterilize Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Southern Lebanon.... now.

We can then round up the 30 million mexican illegals, vaccinate them and relocate them to the middleeast. They have free oil, lots of room, and we get a christian democratic country right in the heart of the middleast.

As Ive said repeatedly, the proper action on 9/11 was to NUKE Kandahar with a minuteman3 missle, killing Binladen Aswari, Mulla Omar, 10K+ Alqiada and 15K+ Taliban fighters and incinerating the Taliban's political foundation and core support. Bush and crew were cowards and didn't have the balls to KILL THE ENEMY. Instead they've been chasing shadows ever since.... and screwing that up too.

Guess that makes me a liberal. Seems like a win win win to me.

The fact is... FACT, not liberal/conservative spin bullshit... Fact... is the adminstration has screwed the pooch in every way possible in this Iraq action. You name a function or plan or action they have taken and they screwed the pooch. Sometimes 2 or 3 times over.

Incompetence on a monumental scale.

Started with not having the plans thoroughly worked out before actually attacking.... even though they had MONTHS to plan everything thoroughly.

They went without enough troops... admitted by Bush now as an "oopsey". They went in with an unrealistic set of rules of engagement vs what the locals were going to do... admitted now by Bush as an "oopsey".

They didn't carryout the original strategy which was to come in with force from 3 directions...south from Kuwait, north from Turkey, and west from airborne landings and capturing western Iraqi airbases. Instead they decided to just moosey in from Kuwait.... costing months more time to corner trackdown and capture Saddam.

The administrations ORIGINAL plan was to be DONE and OUT by July 2003. That was the plan. Didn't work out because of all the 'details" they forgot to plan for or deal with.

Little things like, how about destroying the Iraq ammunition dumps... one of which was 1/2 the size or RHODE ISLAND!!!... problem being Gen Garner brought in a top expert with experience destroying ammo dumps from Gulfwar 1 and turns out that guy had pissed off Cheney, so Cheney had him fired and NEVER REPLCED HIM. So we had noone assigned to destroy the ammo dumps.

Guess what.... where do you think all the supplies for all the IED's that have killed/wounded THOUSANDS of US troops came from?... yep, you guessed it, the ammo dumps the genious's NEVER DESTROYED.

Gen Garner was setting up a new Iraqi army and new Iraqi interim govt on the fly as the assualt was ongoing... Mar/Apr/May 2003. But Bush and his at the time "secret" genious military advisor Henry Kissinger had a better guy for the job and better "plan" for Iraq. So Bush sent in Bremmer, chief idiot in charge and personal assistant to Kissinger, to take over for Gen Garner in mid step.

Bremmer then brilliantly implemented the "de-bathe-ification" plan, and the disbanding of the Iraqi army. That way noone was around to provide law and order and continuity of order in the wake of our army(lite) passing through "conquering" the country.

Instead it was figured, gee once conquered our meager force of 1/3 the troops we should have used can EASILY do double duty as the national police force for Iraq. Sure piece of pie.

But of course pointing out all this blatent pathetic incompetence instantly makes you a "liberal" in the eyes of the ignorant moronic arm chair military genious's, especially you wizards here on this board.

Funny, I dont see you genious's marching into Irq with M4's to carry out the impossible.

How about it NON-LIBERAL wiseass loud mouths, man up, the Army needs you, head down to the local recruiting center. Anyone under 42 is welcome. Man up pussies.

 

[Draax]

pwnd!!

Assumtion ... proved false ... you lose, good day sir.

 

[Ockie]

That's right! In fact, I often thought that the 911 terrorists could probably have used MS Flight Simulator to train for stearing the jetliners just as easily as in flight school since they really only needed to know about manipulating the controlls and stearing. I bet earlier versions of Flight Simulator even had the WTC buildings properly located. I know that there were some changes made to that kind of software after 911 but just what those changes were I don't know.

you can buy actual cockpit mockups for flight simulator, so it's indeed possible to actually train on one.

 

[jmroberts70]

So I'm a liberal?

For the record...

What the hell dude! We're talking about Google Earth here. Start another soap box thread if you feel the need but don't do it here. Personally, I wouldn't call you a lib. for what you've said here, I'd call you just plain silly. Wanting higher taxes, increased government control, legal abortions, and more gun control makes you a liberal. Blaming Bush for Google Earth, that's silly!

 

[zero_vertical]

...

liberal or not, how about addressing the actualy post rather than the last line?

do you really thing google earth is a real time sattelite imagry tool such that terrorists could utilize it (beyond what they could do with a damned MAP from 7/11)?

Do you really think this is an executive office F Up?

You're entire first post was blither. Google Earth isn't an effective terror tool beyond a million other things you could be complaining about, like nail clippers allowed on planes, Rand McNally maps, binoculars or camoflague clothing. The executive office isn't at fault for anything related to Google Earth, so please, take a very large chill pill, and come back to earth, soap boxer.

zv

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

You guys need to stfu already. Liberal this, liberal that..."omg you loose at the internet" type comments. who gives a fuck?

Jesus, someone ban these guys already.

 

[Draax]

You guys need to stfu already. Liberal this, liberal that..."omg you loose at the internet" type comments. who gives a fuck?

Jesus, someone ban these guys already.

Was someone forcing you to read this post?

 

[jmroberts70]

I'm a little behind on my slashdot.org but here's several articles and comments I found over there that were posted yesterday.

 

[jmroberts70]

So, if I browse to a top seceret base in the US and zoom in on a sensitive area, can I be charged with espionage?

 

[zero_vertical]

ban me?

for what?

sorry for calling you a liberal, draax.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

On point, yes the administration, whether Epntagon or Whitehouse screwed the pooch once again. This goes back to the first days of allowing commercial access to the satellite data.

Yes the Russians had thier own, but NO ONE else on earth has the equivalent. So handing whomever wants to $$ to access, let alone free access, is just plain nuts.

Simple enough to implement a ban on any data from sensitive US military and nuclear facilities.

Why is that such a difficult concept to implement or understand?

To do anything less, allowing any prospective enemy access to hires bird's eye views of our facilities (and those of our allies) is utter insanity. Sure the Russians had access.... it cost them $BILLIONS and decades of research to pull off. So for a few $$ you think its ok to provide a shortcut to all the "lesser" enemies so they can obtain information on a budget?

Gee, its not REAL TIME... like duh. But it is up to date enough, especially over heated areas, to be an issue. You think Google (and the companies they have bought out where all the google earth data/satelitte's come from) go look at an area for thier health? The good of mankind? No, they obtain images at the behest of commercial contracts from big corporations and news media, the data later ends up in the free to the public realm, but to commercial interests they will make a run and take fresh images.

So Binladen sets up a front company, say an argicultural research firm, and that firm contracts for a view over Iraq and the Gulf. There they get fresh views of where our bases are, how they are laid out, where the barracks are (like Riyad) or where the docks are the ships use, or where the fuel depots are, etc, etc for 1000 other points of critical tactical intelligence that is NOT realtime but nonetheless critical tactical data to HELP an enemy plan operations.

OR....

Just BAN the use or recording of ANY data by survieilence satellites over critical US installations ANYWHERE on earth. Penalty for violation... summary execution for treason.

The tech explosion, and the declassification (to allow COMMERCIAL exploitation) of the satellite data happened on George Bush's watch. That's why he gets the blame. Blame Connie, blame ShootintheFaceBoy, Powell, Rummy, whatever.... the buck stops on ONE and only ONE desk. Mr Incompetent himself. Call it bad luck, bad timing, but when the hot potato(e) gets tossed at YOU as Commander in Chief, you have to deal with it.

Instead of protecting our facilities from prying eyes, the administration callously approved access to and use of the data for commercial purposes. In the early days it was illegal to use the commercial satellites to view US installations, and release the images. Even the famous views of Area51 came from... the Russians not any US source. That changed under Bush and he is to be held accountable for it.

All the lemming Bush lovers around here can bite me, the guy is an utter incompetent in everything he ever attempted in his life, and he's carried that right through his presidency.

If you can put aside your intellectual dishonesty and self dillusion long enough, simply ask yourself this: What would Gen Marshall, IKE, Patton, Bradley, Teddy Roosevelt, US Grant, George Washington, or any other of the great military leaders in our history think about this and all the other pooch-screwings in the last 6 years?

The Iranians can use google earth images of the gulf naval facilities to know the GPS locations of all the ship births and just aim missles at ALL of them.... like a big real game of "Battleship" and see what they manage to hit. Not to mention ground fixed targets like oil depots and ammo dumps and troop barracks, etc.

These are real world military intelligence issues and you dont EVER give a prospective enemy a leg up of ANY kind ever.

 

[jmroberts70]

Well I do understand you're concern for our safety here but, goddamn dude, Bush isn't the Antichrist. I hate to say it but I've been looking at amazingly accurate satellite images of US top seceret bases for many years. I used some of them for an airfield re-design back in 2000. MSN TerraServer (which I used for free) went live in 1998. Was that Bush's fault too? Was that on his watch as well? No, actually that was Clinton's watch. Actually the TerraServer data was, and still is, far more useful for accurate data and calculations. The images are orthorectified and I can download a "world file" with each image I view which allows me to import the image (with the attached world file) into AutoCAD in real world coordinates for easy scaling and measurements. I also have perfect latitude and longitude as a result. Sure, it may be in black and white but the building locations and such are still there.

You can bet I was concerned that I could download data like this back then for just about anywhere in the US (including all airports and military stations I looked for). Did I blame Clinton for that? Hell no. Is it a seemingly fucked up situation? I think so. I think the government should have steped in there a long time ago (like nearly 10 years ago) and required most of this public information to be blacked out in certain areas. BTW, most of these images out there are actually aerial photos and not satellite imagery. Lastly, the USGS website has far more information that one could probably use against us if they wanted that Google Maps could possibly have.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

I agree JM, you are right Clinton and his administration and Pentagon are equally to blame. Proves the inept and incompetent are truly bipartisan.

How any of it was not blacked out from day one I'll never understand. You need a security clearence to know about the existance of some of these places and things, and yet the "secure-rer's" neglected to bother looking UP.

 

[jmroberts70]

Proves the inept and incompetent are truly bipartisan.

QFT!!!