Google Exposes US Airbase in Pakistan Used To Launch Drones

[tekisui]

Source: The Raw Story

Instead of blanket-wiretapping Americans, maybe the Bush Administration's intelligence agencies should have spent a little more time with Google Earth.



Until recently, Google Earth prominently displayed an image of a clandestine US airbase that housed unmanned Predator drones in Pakistan. An image appeared to show three drones outside a hangar at the end of a runway, which was then confirmed to be an airfield by a British newspaper.

The newspaper then cited intelligence sources as saying the CIA had been using the base to attack and observe al-Qaeda and Taliban militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The photograph appears to confirm a seeming slip-of-the-tongue by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who said that the US was launching strikes on Pakistani territory from inside Pakistan ("As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," she said). Feinstein's spokesman later asserted she was only repeating something she saw in The Washington Post, but intelligence sources used the opportunity to confirm that the US had indeed been using Pakistani bases.

American and Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied that the US has launched strikes from within Pakistan.

"The Google Earth image now suggests that the US began launching Predators from -- built by Arab sheiks for falconry trips -- at least three years ago," the Times of London's Jeremy Page reported. "The advantage of Shamsi is that it provides a discreet launchpad within minutes of Quetta -- a known Taleban staging post -- as well as Taliban infiltration routes into Afghanistan and potential militant targets farther afield."

"Google Earth's current image of Shamsi -- about 100 miles south of the Afghan border and 100 miles east of the Iranian one -- undoubtedly shows the same airstrip as the image from 2006," Page added. "There are no visible drones, but it does show that several new buildings and other structures have been erected since 2006, including what appears to be a hangar large enough to fit three drones. Perimeter defenses -- apparently made from the same blast-proof barriers used at US and NATO bases in Afghanistan -- have also been set up around the hangar."

more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Google_exposes_secret_US_base_in_0219.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Shaddap, Diane.

[arcadian]

2. No, she needs to keep talking.

n/t

[TwilightGardener]

4. As a member of the Intelligence Committee, no, she doesn't.

[arcadian]

5. As a member of the Intelligence Committee, yes, she does.

[TwilightGardener]

6. I'm sorry, but you're an idiot. The Pakistan situation is very, very delicate.

[arcadian]

7. I retract my unpleasant statement.

The one where I called you an idiot and told you to go fuck yourself posted after you called me an idiot. I do not retract my statement about Diane Feinstein disclosing this information. We need to know what kind of disgusting muck our nation does in our name. I guess you are all for cold blooded murder rained down from the sky anonymously but most Americans aren't.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Nice, My opinion of you is confirmed.

[arcadian]

9. You work at Offut?

n/t

[arcadian]

3. I can't tell you how many "secret locations" I've found using google Earth.

I prefer Maps Live actually.

[ThomWV]

10. You would think the article would include the Latitude and Longitude so you could look

The numbers scroll as the cursor moves when you're in Google Earth, no problem to tell us where this spot on earth is so we can all go look for ourselves.