MikeFitz with overflow bit set…

Last September I wrote this other post which included this Google Satellite Image of the Ziggurat of Ur.

Google Satellite Image of the Ziggurat of Ur

The Ziggurat is just north of the massive US-operated Tallil air base in the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar.  This is where the Australian Task Group (the majority of Australia’s forces in Iraq) are currently stationed.  See Operation Catalyst.

My instructions in September were…

Click on the image above and look at the area around the Ziggurat  …  zoom out a couple of levels and then pan south until you will see the air base.  Note the odd crater in the ground, made around the time the previous users were persuaded to leave.

If you had followed these instructions in September, you would have seen the air base swarming with aircraft, helicopters and vehicles. You would also have seen rows and rows of barracks, workshops, stores and mess huts.  I’m guessing you may even have seen the shadow of a Golden Arches sign.

Follow these instructions today and you will see imagery that looks decidedly pre-2003.  No sign at all of the US or Australian encampment.

Now, I’m not normally a fan of censorship on the net, but in this case, I’ll make an exception.  It appears, the bad guys have been using Google Maps to acquire targets inside coalition bases.

In January, British troops in Basra arrested an insurgent who was found with a Google Earth map of the Shatt Al Arab base, home for 1,000 British soldiers.  Following representations from the British government, Google seems to have reverted to pre-2003 imagery for all militarily-sensitive areas in Iraq.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 at 22:14 and is filed under The State of the Planet, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.