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September 28, 2006

Satellite Spying: From Absurd to Alarming

 Starlight, starbright, stars in numbers watching earth tonight

 

 

Jeepers creepers!

 

It may only be a matter of time before Google finds itself in hot water, as the satellite imaging quality of popular mapping software Google Earth continues to improve. As the Daily-Mail mentions in an article today, users are already able to spot sunbathers camped out on rooftops in the Hague. And the Daily-Mail should know about the potential for eavesdropping – one of its writers was a Soviet agent back in the Cold War days, outed by the defector Vasili Mitrokhin.

 

People who before expected a certain amount of privacy when going about their business in their own back yards may soon be shocked to realize they’ll need to get themselves fixed up for public approval before stepping outside. And forget the dark socks and shorts.

 

The question is whether Google will find itself on the nasty end of law suits or other action in the US or other countries alleging privacy invasion. Needless to say, Barbara Streisand will probably have a literal cloven-hooved cow (very easy for her) when all of this occurs to her.

 

While it is true that airplanes often fly over back yards, they do usually also give a bit of warning and generally don’t snap photos for public consumption.

 

We’ve known for some time that “Google” was antonymous with privacy. Whether this will rise to the level of starting a big kerfuffle will eventually have to be seen.

 

 

China firing on, blinding US Mil sats

 

Perhaps Google can alert the public when its satellites are passing overhead so we can use lasers like Google’s friend the Chinese military, which is presently using them (as I predicted here and followed up on here) to interfere with the ability of photographic satellites to do their jobs.  

 

The Daily Telegraph reports today that China is indeed aggressively using lasers to blind US satellites passing overhead, according to a Pentagon report largely squelched by the Bush administration eager not to offend the rising Asian threat (in Carter/Nixon-Kissinger vs. the Soviets fashion).

 

When I read things like this, it honestly makes me worry about our current US policymakers and whether there is anything rattling around in there at 1600 Penn.

 

There do seem to be some people with good sense in the Pentagon, however. They fought tooth and nail to get a single-sentence mention of this aggressive and openly hostile series of acts by the Chinese in the most recent annual China threat assessment. And, as I predicted here and here, we’ve begun an aggressive new spy drone program, which may offer advantages over the predictable patterns of satellites in some areas, at least. But the administration's efforts to avoid honesty in an effort to pursuade the Chinese to be our partners against North Korea even while they are in bed with North Korea (and possibly to make corporate interests invested in China happy) means our future enemy is losing for us more of what we need them to have to ensure peace: respect. Clinton's policies caused the Islamofascists to lose it for us and we know the results. Bush needs to sit up and pay attention during class. So remember kids, when China decides to nuke LA, we shouldn’t respond because it will upset our cooperative effort on North Korea. And besides, we had no business trying to see what the Chinese military was up to either.

 

Not only is Henry Kissinger the most boring person whose company I have ever had the experience of sharing, he and his imitators have never gotten it right in foreign policy when it comes to national security. There's nothing personally bad about many of them, they just shouldn't be left alone with power tools.   

 

 

 

Posted by Martin at September 28, 2006 02:04 PM

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