(H/T – See-Dubya guest-blogging for Michelle Malkin while she is over in Iraq)
The Daily Telegraph reports the British Army has found evidence that the terrorists in Basra are using maps generated by Google Earth to target them.
I see this as a problem that ultimately has no real solution. There are just too many entities selling (or making freely-available) high-resolution satellite photos worldwide, some in countries that are less-than-friendly to either the United States or the United Kingdom.
However, that does not leave Google entirely off the hook. They are, after all, an American company which seems to think that providing up-to-date, high-resolution images of places like the Shaibah Logistics Base just outside Basra and Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia is “a good thing”.
I’ve been using Google Earth for quite some time and always thought of the negative repercussions.
No matter what company is providing these images, they are undoubtedly aiding terrorist organizations.
Sharing of truthful information is not a crime. No one should be prevented from posting any factual information on the web. Ignorance leads to the downfall of many. In this case we may not like what has happened but it has. End of story. Google and other search Engine data companies need the freedom to put all data out there. I hate the ideology of “The dumb don’t know and the smart don’t tell.”