> From: Kristin Roberts, Reuters
>> Deptula cited Google Inc.'s Google Earth, which gives Web users an
>> astronaut's view of the earth and allows them to zoom down to street
>> level. He said it had provided anyone with a credit card the ability
>> to get a picture of any place on earth.
>> "It is huge," he said. "It's something that was a closely guarded
>> secret not that long ago and now everybody's got access to it."
> A bit disingenuous if you ask me.
> What was highly secret was the specifications and capabilities of our
> spy satellites, not so much the products they produce. Of course, the
> capabilities could be surmised from the products so they were
> classified as well.
> As to the offensive use of aerial photography, one can rent a light
> plane and pilot and go up with a digital camera and click away. Even
> most of our national labs permit overflights at relatively low
> altitudes providing aircraft do not "loiter" over the area.
Google earth has from 1 meter to 1 foot resolution (to mix my pmetrics) whereas the military satelites have a resolution of ... gack! ...