Terrorists 'use Google maps to hit UK troops'

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/13/wgoogle13.xml

Terrorists attacking British bases in Basra are using aerial footage displayed by the Google Earth internet tool to pinpoint their attacks, say Army intelligence sources.

Documents seized during raids on the homes of insurgents last week uncovered print-outs from photographs taken from Google.

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.

[prole_for_peace]

1. how old are those bases?

when i use google earth to look at my town, the map is months, maybe a year or two, out of date.

[Kagemusha]

4. Article says "unclear how old but within the last 2 years" they think.

Within the last two years.

Hey, the Brits are the ones who insist on using the same buildings for over 24 months in the first place...

[Massacure]

16. I think google gurantees that they update the entire world every three years.

[onehandle]

8. My neighborhood is at least 7 years old on Googlemaps. nt

[struggle4progress]

10. Googlemaps doesn't correctly exhibit redesigned highway interchanges ..

.. near where I live, so it's certainly at least a couple of years out of date.

[VegasWolf]

2. I thought these terrorists were in their last throes? nt

[oblivious]

3. That was a couple of years ago. They're all dead now. These are zombies.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Zombie Terrorist

That's the title of the latest CD by Partyline. I knew they were onto something big with that one; little did I know how big. :wow:

[goforit]

6. Oh well. UK forces need to use different means of communication.

[madeline_con]

7. Freedom of info vs security risks.

The beat goes on.................

[951-Riverside]

9. While we're at it lets ban all chemistry books too n/t

Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain........

[northofdenali]

11. No problem here -

Google can't figure out anywhere in Alaska that isn't Anchorage and vicinity........ Of course, neither can MapQuest, Expedia, and about half of the folks who make the paper version!! :P

[ProudDad]

12. This is TOO GOOD

What a delightful way to make war obsolete!

[pinniped]

13. Ban the company who manufactured the computers they used to access "the google"....

and make these alleged maps.

That will show them.

S.F. will have free WiFi soon, will Iraq?

[Porcupine]

14. I bet they can do better than that if they try.....

All they have to do is smuggle somebody into the camp with a laser rangefinder and a GPS. Or they could use cheap US model airplane technology to make their own UAV's. Hell anybody could afford their own UAV's nowadays and the little bastards are almost impossible to shoot down or detect on radar.

Restricting Google Earth is likely to be as much about not letting people back home see WTF's going on.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Google Maps shows my home at 2000ft = 1 inch at best

and that's in the crowded south of England. You can't make out anything smaller than 50 feet across - eg roads and houses in residential areas are invisible in a general murk. The same satellite photograph is used in Google Earth. How come Iraq gets details 10 times better?

I don't know how often Google Earth is claimed to be updated - it says "It is unclear how old the maps are but it is believed the Basra images were made within the past two years". I find it hard to believe that the locals haven't worked out a way of spotting the toilet block within 2 years, by using binoculars. Google Earth is probably just a useful way of printing it out.

[dipsydoodle]

17. Same here

and not helped by the fact it was in cloud shadow at the time the picture was taken. I think the whole GoogleEarth issue in Iraq is a fairy tale.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. The coverage seems almost random

Southampton Airport is at full detail in its southern half (you can clearly see the bay markings in car parks), and the Google Maps scale is 1:600, while the northern tip is at 1:20000, and fuzzy at that - all you can make out is the runway.

I think I can get almost as good detail for Basra (you can make out cars, but they don't look as sharp as they do in the 1:600 picture).