Writing the news, raising hell, and telling truth to power - Egan Orion
|
|
|
Pentagon slaps a ban on Google Street View
GOOGLE'S GONE and blown it with the Pentagon after posting photo and video footage of US military base Fort Sam, in Houston, Texas. The images reportedly showed the entry gates, barriers and buildings in great detail, including the position of the base's guards.
The captured footage of the base was for Google's new Street View service, a feature of Google maps, allowing users to see streets from ground-level, with 360-degree panoramas in 30 U.S. cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
It allows users to virtually drive down a street. But since its launch, the Street View service appears to have caused nothing but trouble, with the Search Engine giant being accused on a daily basis by the "innocent" bystanders caught in its lens, of violating their privacy. People have been caught having a pee by the side of the road, sunbathing topless, being arrested, and one unfortunate man was seen by his (soon to be ex) wife emerging from a strip club.
In the case of the Fort Sam military base, Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the US Northern Command, wrote in a statement, that the photographs –taken by a camera mounted on a vehicle sent by Google – showed "where all the guards are, how the barriers go up and down, and how to get in and out of buildings".
The Pentagon, getting its knickers in a twist, hurriedly sent out letters to all Defence Department bases and installations in the US, reminding them that people driving into military bases and videoing everything, may, just possibly, not be a very good idea for security reasons.
Google, which removed the sensitive photos at the firm behest of the Pentagon's powers that be, reckoned that it was usually against company policy "to request access to military installation for the purpose of capturing imagery in Street View" and that they had made a mistake in this case.
But that being said, Google had in fact requested permission from the base to enter and photograph it, and that permission had been granted. General Renuart's statement did not make it clear why Google had been given access to film the base in the first place. µ
Tags: Google
Share this:
Share
Street View is a great idea, the pentagon are quite right though, military bases and such should be excluded for blatently obvious security reasons, however Street View will prove to be advantagious to popular holiday locations, giving holiday hunters a great insight to where they might want to go, lets face it, most of the pictures in the brochure are inaccurate. Google stated that they are working on face blurring technology which is good news for those perverse rats of husbands emerging from strip clubs etc, in my view they deserve to be shamed....
What's happening to streetview now happened to Canada in 2000. Canada developed a radar satellite (RadarSat 2) capable of 2 meters resolution that enabled imagery through clouds, darkness etc. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contracted NASA to send in the mid-90s RadarSat 1 which NASA did successfully. However with the greater resolution of RadarSat 2 NASA was pressured under the US military to backtrack it's agreement with the CSA and not launch RadarSat 2 despite CSA's committment not to release pictures of US military base viewed from space. Furthermore the US then after declared the outter space above the US mainland and territories to be US space and therefore would fall under it's jurisdiction. I am not surprised seeing this level of paranoia to anything concerning photos of US installations. After a 2 year delay Canada did finally launched RadarSat 2 by hiring a russian launch outfit.

-No Surprise
Check out this bloggers list of banned Google Street Views:

http://streetviewgallery.corank.com
Someone was stripped of rank...

I like google street view, great thing! Though yes some people have been "exposed" and if I remember correctly there was a law suit not too long ago about someone's parents going after google because there under age daughter (16 or 17) was sun bathing and you could see it all...

All they need to do is just make sure no one is in any of the pics, unless they get consent to have them in.
I guess terrorist wouldn't bother to look up Google. They would just ask the security post if they are allowed to drive into the base and plant a bomb somewhere. I guess they would be sent to the ammo storage area straight away, "where dem bombs belong, duh".
The 9/11 government conspiracy is a government conspiracy.

It was on South Park;

QED
All this fuss over Google's Street View!

Perhaps the Pentagon officials should have examined the perfect Bird's Eye imagery of the whole base on Microsoft's Virtual Earth!

Alan Turnbull
www.secret-bases.co.uk
9/11 happened BECAUSE of GW Bush.
*That Terminator from G00gle claimed to be on Her Majesty's Secret Service! Whoever heard of a crooked Englishman? We promise to double-naught do it again!"

People have been caught doing things that they aren't supposed to do! On Google Streetview! Yeegads, the frikkin world's ENDING.

Mayhaps those folks shouldn't have been doing those things in the first place? Oh wait! I wouldn't want to be caught shopping at Fry's Electronics! Blasphemy! Get rid of Streeview NOW!
It shows how barriers go up and down? Oh my goodness! Next thing you know, terrorists will be developing sharp sticks!
WHAT'S PRIVATE IN PUBLIC PLACES

AT adds: Stop shouting, you buffoon.
If the government consented then reneged, that's a government problem. Google isn't responsible for national security. If this base can't train its people well enough to recognize potential threats, then God help us all. Let's hope Al-Queda isn't courteous enough to ask permission before they strike next. Somebody should be held accountable for this sh*t. Let's start with GW Bush and his idiotic defense policy. 9/11 happened on his watch! Are we any safer now?
Correction - Fort Sam Houston is in San Antonio, TX. Not Houston, TX.

AT adds: The black helicopters will be arriving outside any moment now.