By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
During raids on insurgents’ homes last week, troops discovered printouts from Google Earth which clearly show that terrorists have discovered a new use for it … planning attacks.
The satellite photographs show in detail the buildings inside the bases and vulnerable areas such as tented accommodation, lavatory blocks and where lightly armoured Land Rovers are parked.
Written on the back of one set of photographs taken of the Shatt al Arab Hotel, headquarters for the 1,000 men of the Staffordshire Regiment battle group, officers found the camp’s precise longitude and latitude. Source:
We Say: Well, they are certainly more into technology than I would have expected. The article also indicates that maps are even being sold in Basra markets!
Even if Google Earth was used to plan an attack, repelling invaders is not terrorism.
James… your statement highlights your fairlure to grasp the complexity of the situation.
That said, there is a flip side to everything. Anything good can be used for evil, and this is Google Earth’s flip-side.
Gotta take the good with the bad…
I believe James has a point. The “terrorists” are indeed fighting an invading force.
No, they are mainly killing each other. Sunni killing Shiite. Shiite killing Sunni. Stop watching Al Jazeera and get the correct information.
Actually I think James is watching CNN and ABC and the other alphabet stations. However I believe with the new emphasis on training and occupying territory things will turn, as many have noted, in Iraq the safest and quietest places to be are the US occupied areas, as they trust the Americans to be even handed unlike their distrust of sectarian groups or the foreign terrorists who come in just to cause problems.
Having said all that, I can’t believe it took this long for this to come out. I mean, it’s satellite intel on the cheap, it’s what the superpowers invested billions to invent and acquire during the 60’s and 70’s, and now we’re suprised that guys with $100 Garmin GPS units bought by Iran are using it to lay target plans is just being slow on our media’s part.
I remember when Google Earth first popped up people were talking about terrorists using it to target US facilities because the res was so good.
I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘in to technology’. Duh! If something like this is available, AND IT’S FREE, why wouldn’t they use it?
Oh, and insurgents are bad. They’re fighting for nothing more than chaos and their version of greed.
I don’t see how these groups can be doing any real time planning strategy here, esp. of moving targets like armored vehicles. Google doesn’t display very updated images – in downtown Detroit where i have eaten lunch for the past year hasn’t even been built yet, according to Google Maps. Are they paying for advanced images maybe?
This is old news a la “loose lips sink ships”, and no you should not be surprised that our enemies are using this sort of tech against us.
A US Navy and Marine Corps Anglico team (a unit that spots for air support and artillery – to include naval gunfire) in Beruit was targeted back in the 1980s after the a news helicopter over flew their position and the video was on the six o’clock news. They got hit with mortars almost immediately after some “friendly” embassies passed the videos on to the bad guys in Beruit.
Mathew, our operation in Iraq long ago passed the moble warfare phase, so there are plenty of fixed U.S installations where having this sort of imagery would provide invaluable intelligence to the enemy. Even without the ” real time” aspect, imagery is still valuable to help identify potential sniper positions, plot unspoted artillery fire, and selection of potential ambush sites along likely patrol routes.
James Babb, you are either a fifth columnist or a fricking idiot. However screwed up the Iraq invasion has turned out, the ultimate intent was to protect US allies and interests from a totalitarian regime that recently invaded two different neighbors in wars of territorial conquest, not only pursued WMD in the past, but used them in attacks against civillian targets for the expressed purpose of wholesale slaughter of specific ethnic groups (genocide), and who routinely violated the cease fire frome the first Gulf War (shot hundreds of SAMs at US and allied aircraft patroling the no-fly zone, which tied down tens of thousands of US troops in Saudi Arabia to defend against another Iraqi invasian against Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. That last point, US forces in the land of Mecca and Medina was the single most significant rallying point of the islamofacists. Oh, and the best shot that the Iraqis, or any Arab or Muslim people for that matter, had at democracy since Mustapapha Kimmel has come vis a vi the “invading US military”.
Sorry, if we fail, the real loosers will be the Iraqis, who are facing civil war in the “old testament” sense, repleat with genocide, followed by either another totalitarian regime, or a militant Islamic theocracy that will make the Taiban look like the AARP.
[...] Earlier we wrote about insurgents using Google Earth to plan attacks. Well, there are others in Iraq using it to just plain survive. As the communal bloodshed has worsened, some Iraqis have set up advice websites to help others avoid the death squads. [...]