North Korea's response will be epic... CIA is throwing a party down in section 11.. whatever that section means... lol
What is interesting about this thread is, that many people think that Google Earth is starting something new. Fact is, US military satellites have been giving this kind of info, and even much better high resolution images (speculatively enough to read car license plates, though some doubt this), including thermal and infrared imaging. What is new about this however, is that for the first time, Google Earth has enable private citizens (and or foreign governments without their own satellites) to use their (or other commercial) eye in the sky service to literally look down onto their neighbor. The significance of the above project, is the combination of human derived intelligence with the satellite images. That, in a nutshell, is classic CIA or military intelligence gathering from afar. Perfectly legal, but guaranteed to make the object of attention pissed beyond belief. -whistle I'm sure the DPRK is stewing about this right now.
im 100% that google earth is merely legacy technology which was probably around before we knew it existed, the real stuff the governments have can do much more than read number plates and get some kind of thermal or infrared images im sure. im pretty sure us having this somewhat old technology was a group decision by the 'powers that be', maybe they want to see what people do with it, or maybe they are giving terrorist groups the technology to inflict massive damage resulting in an excuse for martial law.. who knows, time will tell.
yes this is probably very old technology, but its new for the public, there are many inventions out there, im sure, that are not ready to be graced by the public. Google Earth has many restrictions on what images they can show... especially military bases abroad have sent angry letters to google about showing their entire layout on google earth... therefore they have been removed swiftly.... mostly before it caught the public eye. Nonetheless this project shows North Korea to the public, almost every inch of its territory has been mapped, this type of information would never have been leaked from CIA, FBI, and other intelligence government factions....
