March 25, 2006
Picture of the Week: The Department of Homeland Security by Satellite
This is interesting. Recently, I was up near American University which is on one of the corners of Nebraska and Massachusetts Avenues in Washington.
The Ambassador of Japan, Ryozo Kato, lives at 4000 Nebraska Avenue, which is close to the opposite corner from AU. I've been there a lot. There are some houses closer to the actual corner than the Ambassador's actual residence -- but still, one can see what's up there.
On the third corner is an AU parking lot.
But what is on the 4th corner?
I was playing around with Google Maps to find out -- and if you look at www.google.com/maps and punch in American University or 4000 Nebraska Avenue (for the Japanese Ambassador's residence) and Washington, DC, you can move the image around and see that there is a huge facility there (pictured above).
Another image from Google Earth follows below.
What is interesting that if you clip "Map" on the Google Map program, the area on this corner where the enormous facility is shows up blank. AU is listed -- but nothing under maps. Click satellite, however, and the pics show up.
This turns out to be one of the major facilities, if not the current headquarters, of the Department of Homeland Security. A friend has reported to me that it is the headquarters, but I don't have that confirmed.
In any case, just wanted to report that DHS may have squelched the maps on its location but not yet the satellites.
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001303.php