Googling Bin Laden

Terrorism 15 Comments

According to Wired;

After Google recently updated its satellite images of parts of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, much of the region still looked blotchy — the kind of low resolution that persists in coverage of, say, upstate New York. But several small squares (they stand out as off-color patches from 680 miles up) suddenly became as detailed as the images of Manhattan. These sectors happen to be precisely where the US govern­ment has been hunting for bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Turns out, Google gets its images from many of the same satellite companies — DigitalGlobe, TerraMetrics, and others-that provide reconnaissance to US intelligence agencies. And when the CIA requests close-ups of the area around Peshawar in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, Google Earth reaps the benefits (although usually six to 18 months later). This is also why remote parts of Asia went hi-res after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and the Kashmir earthquake in 2005.

h/t

15 Replies to “Googling Bin Laden”

  1. and where do the jihadis get THEIR satellite images? Hmmmm? Oh no, we wouldn’t be helping the enemy, er, freedom fighters, now.
    /Google dhimmi

  2. “and where do the jihadis get THEIR satellite images?” I believe the New York Times or NBC.

  3. Ha! Cool story.
    As for the first few comments, I don’t think we can blame Google (or the NYT or NBC) for using/providing satelitte imagery. If these images were classified, Google wouldn’t be getting them (they didn’t REQUEST the enhanced imaging, it just came when they got their updated images).
    The difference is, when the CIA gets closeups from satelittes, they get them right away, unedited, and they show what’s actually happening on the ground at that moment (or SLIGHTLY before). Knowing what the ground looked like 18 months ago doesn’t really help the terrorists (no more than a good topo map would).
    Trust me, if there were a real risk that GoogleEarth were of help to terrorists the authorities would tell Google and I’m sure Google would stop posting detailed sattelite imagery of the area (it’s not like it shows much, or anyone that Google markets to would really miss it if it were yanked). And if Google refused (I don’t think they would…) the authorities could either shut it down themsleves, or let the public know that terrorists were gaining an advantage from Google Earth, and let public pressure shut it down. I really don’t think it’s a problem.

  4. Looked over the areas….looks quieter than downtown pyonyang, North Korea….check that out, frightening.
    See building but no cars and cant see people or caves…..
    What I would like to see is an infraread sattelite image from nighttime…..especially in fall on a cool night….that might tell you something…they have to heat themselves somehow…assuming they arent hiding in plain sight in the middle of an overpopulated town.

  5. Well there ya go, with this type of tech and private sector cooperation from google they should be able to read the address number on Bin Laden’s cave door.
    I’m sure he’ll be in custody some time this decade.

  8. Somehow don’t think Binnie Laddie is hanging out in a cave. He could well be going through his lineup up
    of 72 virgins many times over by now.
    How can we be so gullible as to even imagine the excuse for a human being living in primitive conditions anywhere?
    He’s either being hidden by loyal supporters, and there would be no shortage in his world, or he is
    no longer on earth but below it rotting in hell.

  9. Some of you are overreacting. It’s not what you see on Google Earth et al., but what you don’t see. The US intelligence agencies get a broad range of satellite imaging when they request it, one of which shows up in Google Earth maps. They also get MUCH higher resolution and close-up images that you don’t see. As well, governments can request from the providers that certain “sensitive” areas be blurred, if they felt there was a legitimate threat by having it available for public use. Check out the naval base in The Nederlands to see one such (weird) example.

  10. Liz J: yes the Osama Bin Phergotten syndrome is comical but remember it is still a large part of the current regime’s official justification for protracted military operations in the ME and in the official 9/11 conspiracy story.
    Today we see the Mil-intel spooks puffing their chests out while parading the half insane drugged out tortured carcass of some insurgent mooselim general and still chipping about Bin Laden’s influence and involvement in 9/11 and his danger as America’s enemy….providing weak orthodoxy to the “official story”.
    That “story has it that the most technically advanced superpower in earth was breeched by a plot hatched fron some ignorant mooslim cave dweller and accomplished with a few packing case cutters….it was comfrimed by this drugged-out mess they paraded before the media briefly with a a prepared confession…it’s all there…nothing more to question. 😉
    They still continue to expend billions in searching for him ( Bin Laden) in caves with their military….the bounty is still on his noggen and they have even brought in the Apache trackers to give the whole thing a hollywood duster flair:
    http://www.shortnews.com/shownews.cfm?id=60937
    Comical or not someone appears to believe he still hides in caves and is still alive and it is worth pissing away this type of tax dollars on.
    Maybe they want to get a refund from him for all the money he was paid as a CIA asset in the 80s? 😉

  11. WL Mackenzie Redux:Kind of arrogant of you to compare yourself with a great P.M. isn’t it?
    Your conspiracy theories are boring. Give it up.

  13. Has SDA taken a turn to the left?
    “…the Pentagon system has long been the country’s biggest welfare program, transferring massive public funds to high-tech industry on the pretext of defence and security.”
    Congratulations if you correctly attributed that quotation to the poster boy of leftist paranoia – Noam Chomsky.

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