Google Earth Accused of Aiding Mumbai Terror Attacks

foxnews.com ^ | December 9, 2008

[Free ThinkerNY]

An Indian court has been called to ban Google Earth amid suggestions the online satellite-imaging service was used to help plan the terror attacks that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai last month.

A petition entered at the Mumbai High Court alleges that the Google Earth service "aids terrorists in plotting attacks."

Advocate Amit Karkhanis has urged the court to direct Google to blur images of sensitive areas in the country until the case is decided.

There are indications that the gunmen who stormed Mumbai on Nov. 26, and the people who trained them, were technically skilled.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Makes about as much sense as blaming the guns used.

[cripplecreek]

Yep that genie has long since left the bottle and it isn’t going back.

[Future Snake Eater]

Utter nonsense. Al Qaeda uses Google Earth, too. You know who else does? Us. How about blaming Muslims and the lack of an armed police force and citizenry? Guess that wouldn’t fit into the Indian caste system, would it?

[Gondring]

Advocate Amit Karkhanis has urged the court to direct Google to blur images of sensitive areas in the country until the case is decided.

What? Just the PG version, where parts of Mother Earth are blurred out?

[John123]

Makes about as much sense as blaming the guns used.

Exactly. Might as well, ban the sale of gasoline, iron and whatever else was used in the attack.

[puppypusher]

So what other tools would be banned if they are used by terrorist groups?firearms!Oh I forgot, they were already banned in India thats why the terrorist were able to kill as many people as they did.

[CE2949BB]

An Indian court has been called to ban Google Earth amid suggestions the online satellite-imaging service was used to help plan the terror attacks that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai last month.

Using that so-called logic: So did the manufactures of the terrorists' clothing and every farmer that grew food that they ate.

This is bullsh-t.

[tyke]

There’s no doubting that sites like Google Earth make it easier to plan attacks like Mumbai, but the genii left that bottle years ago and he ain’t coming back.

[DB]

They don’t have maps in India???

Gonna “blur” those too?

[SteamShovel]

Indian court has been called to ban Google Earth

While we are at it, let's ban telephones, backpacks, tennis shoes, jeans, boats, ships......

I can think of a lot of things that helped the terrorists.

Why not just blame the terrorists and go after them? Why should laws abiding people pay the price twice? Once for the terrorist attacks and then by having a tool taken away from them.

[SpaceBar]

A few years ago Israel was in a row with Google about making hi-res imagery of their military installations and border areas freely available. Shortly thereafter Hezbollah was revealed to have used Google Earth to “fine tune” their rocket trajectories. India complained some months ago to Google for similar reasons. Now we find out that it was used to coordinate the Mumbai attack. Perhaps I'm getting old but I remember when getting certain high quality satellite imagery like SPOT for example was subject to intentional resolution blurring or redaction by the US Defense Dept. and international agreements depending on the perceived sensitivity of the particular scene.

[Eagles6]

Tried to get a look see at a potential hunting area but couldn't get it to work. It is google of course, we know the lefties hate Americans like me but love our enemies.

Probably just a coincidence right?...8(

[Strategerist]

There’s a US law requiring Israel to be shown at a lower resolution in images by US companies.

There are no international laws or agreements regarding satellite imagery and the reality is that if you want high res imagery you can find it somewhere, the imagery gets higher and higher resolution over time, and there are plenty of non-US companies.

Google Earth still has the Naval Observatory in Washington (VP Residence) “blurred” but if you use Yahoo Maps and the aerial image function you can see it in perfect detail.

[af_vet_rr]

Makes about as much sense as blaming the guns used.

Blame everything but the individuals involved, that's what the world is coming to. Blame rock music, blame guns, blame the gun manufacturers, blame computers, blame internet forums, blame, blame, blame, blame.

[zeugma]

Indeed. I’m sure they used automobiles as well.

[dr_lew]

Don’t forget the Zodiacs

[realdifferent1]

Or the cell phones.