Google was allowed to street-level map a U.S. military base

Thu, 03/06/2008 - 4:36pm

Since it's the fifth anniversary of the DHS, we've got homeland security on the brain today. So it was fitting that this terrifying little tidbit just came over the AP:

The Pentagon has banned Google Earth teams from making detailed street-level video maps of U.S. military bases.... Michael Kucharek, spokesman for U.S. Northern Command, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the decision was made after crews were allowed access to at least one base. He said military officials were concerned that allowing the 360-degree, street-level video could provide sensitive information to potential adversaries and endanger base personnel."

Um, no duh. Considering that Google Earth is a favorite tool of terrorist groups -- including the Palestinian al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which uses it to target and kill Israeli civilians -- this strikes me as a pretty common sense decision.

And it begs the question: Who the heck allowed a team from Google Earth, presumably carrying all sorts of video and mapping equipment, access to a U.S. military base in the first place?

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Google Maps vs. Google Earth

by noahb on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 4:39pm

I'm thinking that the team that was allowed in to the base was part of the Google Maps Street-view team and they were probably driving around in a car like these ones.
Those are actually somewhat inconspicuous, but they definitely should be driving around military bases. The question is, did the street view maps make it up on to Google.

Do Israelis use maps when

by thabet on Fri, 03/07/2008 - 2:52am

Do Israelis use maps when killing Palestinians? Might explain a few things if they don't.

It was a mistake, and the

by Anonymous_Economist on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 12:08pm
It was a mistake, and the base got 'dinged' for it.

Alternatively, I've heard of a lot of abuse of Google, by our own intel. For example, some people being fooled or coerced into doing some dangerous things, in the name of national security (like industrial espionage) and that Google was used to help fool the 'targets' into signing contracts, which could have been used to coerce them.

To put a US Citizen in harm's way to steal competitive corporate data is not national security-related in *my* book. And it is, frankly, terrifying, as a practice. That needs to be looked at.


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