Spy in the sky: what you can and cannot see

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Spy in the sky: what you can and cannot see
by Kaya Burgess


Concerns over Google Earth

— Former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam has expressed concern over the availability of high-resolution pictures of sensitive locations in India. Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.

Visible on Google Earth

Aldermaston | Sellafield | GCHQ | 10 Downing Street | Thames House [MI5] | Chequers | Area 51, Nevada, US | DGSE [French MI5] | Guantánamo Bay | Pentagon | Pakistani Army Base in Wana | Indian Army Base Workshop in Meerut | Chinese submarine in dock at Xiaopingdao Submarine Base

Blurred out on Google Earth

Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands | Reims Airbase in France | An unknown location in Russia | A naval observatory near Washington


-- The Indian Space Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.

— The South Korean government has expressed concern that the software offers images of the presidential palace and various military installations that could possibly be used by their hostile neighbor North Korea.

— In 2006, one user spotted a large topographical replica in a remote region of China. The model is a small-scale (1/500) version of the Karakoram Mountain Range, currently under the control of China but claimed by India. When later confirmed as a replica of this region, spectators began entertaining military implications.

— Morocco's main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth[36] since August 2006 for undisclosed reasons.

— Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility. However, they later withdrew the request.

— In July 2007, it was reported that a new Chinese navy Jin-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine was photographed at the Xiaopingdao Submarine Base south of Dalian.

— In October 2007, The Guardian reported that the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were using Google Earth to plan Qassam rocket attacks on Israel.

From The Times
December 10, 2008
Indian court asked to ban Google Earth

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00446/BARC-3...
Aerial photographs of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on Google Earth

Rhys Blakely in Mumbai

Google Earth should be banned amid suspicions that the online satellite imaging tool was used in planning the attacks that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai last month, an Indian court heard.

The demand from Amit Karkhanis, an Indian lawyer, came as a new school of “tech-savvy jihadis” make use of data freely available online and other web-based services to plot and execute their strikes, a phenomenon dubbed “the Google threat” by military commanders. The case filed at the Mumbai High Court alleges that Google Earth and similar services, “aid terrorists in plotting attacks” by supplying detailed bird’s-eye images that are used to acquaint militants with their targets.

The British Army is already thought to have taken up the issue with the company. It emerged last year that Iraqi insurgents planning attacks on a British base in Basra had used Google Earth images in which individual buildings inside the camp could be seen clearly. Google replaced the images with photographs that predated the construction of the base. The Indian authorities do not appear to have cracked down so swiftly. Yesterday the layout of India’s most important atomic research facility remained accessible on Google despite officials voicing concern more than a year ago.

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), in northeast Mumbai, a city with a population of 18 million, houses at least two nuclear reactors and is regarded as one of India’s highest value targets.

Praful Bidwai, a leading anti-proliferation expert, said: “Fly a plane into BARC and you have a Chernobyl on your hands.”

Last week India increased security at its main airports after credible intelligence that indicated a plan to hijack an airliner to target a highly populated area in a 9/11-type attack.

Islamic terrorists have long used the web for propaganda and training purposes, experts say, and are constantly refining their methods.

Officials describe an “online arms race” that has been running for years as terrorists turn innocent internet tools to sinister ends.A recent US Army intelligence paper mulled over the possibility of Twitter, a tool that allows people to update blogs from their mobile phones, being used to co-ordinate terrorist ambushes. “My 11-year-old can use these gizmos,” one intelligence official said. “Are you going to tell me the bad guys can’t?”