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Thursday October 11, 2007

Accept it — Google Earth is a strip show of Israel

by alex fishman

Before anything else, Google Earth, the stunning satellite image Web site, must shake our consciousness. Through it, terms such as “ambiguity” and “state secrets” are gradually being eroded by technological leaps.

For Israel, this is simply a strip show. We feel as if we’re wearing something, but we’re actually wearing nothing.

We’re transparent.

With the latest upgrade to its satellite images, Israel and its sensitive facilities lost another layer that used to cover them. If until now we have only exposed ourselves to the satellites of superpowers, we now have a situation where Israel’s most secretive sites can be exposed not only to any intelligence agency, but to any Internet user.

Previously, guiding a terrorist or agent with this level of accuracy required a complex intelligence gathering effort. Today, this information is openly available and accessible to all. Just grab some satellite images and go on a tour of Israel’s secret facilities.

Even if we’re talking about images that are out-of-date and of poor resolution, we still have a pool of information that any intelligence body would be willing to invest plenty of money and effort to get a hold of.

Now, when a member of the global Jihad network is sent to gather intelligence information about a sensitive site in Israel, his higher-ups can provide him with exact coordinates he can enter into Google Earth’s search window on his laptop — and that’s it. The program helps him prepare the operation — it shows him the target from up close, enabling him to identify a nearby building where he can observe the target and any escape routes.

Identifying sensitive strategic and security sites in Israel is a major objective for Iran and Syria, among others. The intelligence-gathering ability of Arab states in Israel is limited, particularly in matters pertaining to gathering military intelligence via cutting-edge technologies. In the past, these countries were forced to rely on superpowers and commercial companies, which usually sold low-resolution images.

This, by the way, demonstrates the kind of advantage Israel acquired after it developed an independent capability to launch spy satellites.

Now that we have this strip show, however, Arab states will find it easier to point to the location they are interested in. When the Web site is used by an expert who knows exactly what he’s looking for at the sensitive site, the quality provided by the site may be enough to confirm either the existence of a site, or of certain capabilities attributed to Israel.

If Google Earth can provide an image of a sensitive bunker or missile battery, it provides coordinates that can be used to accurately aim ballistic missiles to target.

If this program is an asset for enemy countries, it is pure gold for terrorists. Until now, Islamic Jihad used the program to improve its Kassam fire on civilian targets. Today, with the program identifying military targets as well, why should Islamic Jihad ignore them?

This transparency, which will only grow, creates a major problem for the entire world. In the 1960s and ‘70s, when the United States felt threatened by Soviet spy satellites, it invested $15 billion in hiding its ballistic missile arsenal underground. This is not the solution Israel either needs, or can. adopt.

It is also reasonable to assume that soon it will be possible to purchase satellite images that provide thermal shots — allowing the buyer to reach conclusions about the materials or type of activity taking place at the site.

Sadly, all that is left for us to do is internalize the reality that we are transparent and take it into consideration when we undertake any kind of military activity.

Just as we got used to the reality that cellular phones are a major means of leaking information, we must get used to the notion that our top secret facilities are no longer that secret — and conduct ourselves accordingly.

What can be done in the face of all this transparency? This is the highly complicated challenge faced by the experts dealing with the fields of concealment and deception.

Alex Fishman writes opinion pieces for Ynetnews, where this article previously appeared.

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