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Google Pulls Map Images At Pentagon's Request

Posted by kdawson on from the limits-to-openness dept.

Stony Stevenson alerts us to a little mixup in which a Google Street View crew requested and was granted access to a US military base. Images from inside the base (which was not identified in press reports) showed up online, and the Pentagon requested that they be pulled. Google complied within 24 hours. The military has now issued a blanket order to deny such photography requests in the future; for its part Google says the filming crew should never have asked.

14 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. they let them in... by chaos421 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    well what did they expect? they let in a car with a deathstar-like thing on the roof. don't you think the gate guards would have asked what the heck that was? oh i don't know it could have been a camera, laser beam, bomb whatever... maybe they used the force. "move along."

    google street view camera

    1. Re:they let them in... by gnick · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Depending on the guard/base, getting on is not always difficult - I accidentally sneaked onto an Air Force base a few years ago (my second time driving onto a military base where I was unauthorized.) I pulled up to the guard station expecting to be turned away - I just wanted to ask the guard for directions to the badge office so that I could get a day-pass for my car. As expected, he asked to see my vehicle pass but, before I could respond, he noticed that I had flowers on my passenger seat (they were given to me earlier that day as congratulations on the birth of my first son.) He told me that if I was just delivering flowers not to worry about it. But, he did mention that I shouldn't spend too long on base before waving me on.

      So that's it - You want to sneak onto base, arm yourself with flowers.

      (As a side note, on my first breach - a missile range - I was armed with a rat. But that's another story...)

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    2. Re:they let them in... by gnick · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sorry - I didn't post it because I don't find it as interesting as the flower incident and wasn't sure anyone would even care to hear about the flower incident.

      Basically, I got lost. Really lost. (I've been known to get lost in elevators - Really. That can be embarrassing to explain.) I was driving from El Paso to Las Cruces with all of my stuff in my car because I was moving to go to school. That included my pet rat who would ride either in his cage on my passenger seat or on my shoulder. Anyway, I somehow wound up on the wrong side of the Organ mountains (I should have noticed that I'd lost the highway when I realized that there was no traffic and that somebody had installed tank-crossing signs along the road.) The road dead-ended at a guard station - I didn't realize that until the last minute because it was after midnight (dark) and I was tired. The guards (3) came out as I was scrambling to get my rat back in his cage. Before the guard that approached my car could ask WTF I was doing there, I started with "Where the hell am I?" With that, the other two guards chuckled and went back in the building.

      The guard that remained was obviously more interested in my rat than he was me and asked a few questions as to why in the hell I would have a rat with me. (Wouldn't a better question be "Why are you driving up to a military guard post at 0030?) I explained that I was moving had gotten turned around. He warned me that the missile range was closed except to personnel working there and told me to drive straight through without deviating. I did.

      That's it - End of story. It disturbed me a little that I was let in, but turning me around would have taken 1 hour+, so I won't complain.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:they let them in... by GHynson · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I got into White Sands, with an jar and a UN flag.

      He's my story

      One night I was with some buddies and we got to talking about Oppenhiemer and WWII and the bomb.
      We all thought it would be kewl to go to the Trinity site where they detonated the first A-Bomb, and
      after doing research on the site, we came to the conclusion that it would be pointless to go visit since it's been closed off to the public for "Safty Reasons".
      Well anyway I ended up going there alone since everyone else was to chicken-shit to go, and the fact that it was in New Mexico (We lived in Austin, TX at the time going to UT.)
      I got to White Sands Missle Range the next day and pulled up to the front gate,.which by the way did'nt look to secured. (I guess being out in the middle of the desert, you don't get to many vistors).
      Well, to my surprise, the guards just flagged me through with out even making me stop.
      After driving 20 miles or so I came to another post, this time I stopped and asked the guard where gound-zero was. He just told me to keep driving and "keep the posts to your right", and so I moved on.
      (I realized what they mean by the posts sticking up out the ground now, because the sand covers the road and you'll get lost with out them). Anyway, about 90-100 miles in, I ran into what looked like the last remaining post which was heavly guarded by gun emplacements and armored vechicles.
      Well, the guy in charge did'nt take to well me being there, and I'd say he kinda had a Nazi complex or something.
      I got kinda scared so I made up some story on the fly about doing radiation experiments with the sand and I was there to collect a sample. I showed him the jar and I guess he bought the story.
      After about an hour of being "detained" he said I can go get the sample but I'd have to go in one of their vechicles and with an armed escort.
      When I got back from collecting the samples, they told me the guards at the first station thought I was with the UN since my Mini-Van was white and I had a UN flag waving on my antenna.
      The second post thought I was a student with UT there on behalf of the UN and assumed I was legit since I made it through the first post. And I guess since I was a long way from home, the third post just let me finish my quest after they concluded I was no threat.
      Well, I still got the sealed jar of sand in my curio display, and my my friends still can't believe I did it. I just wish I owned a camera at the time so I'd have pics to show everyone.

  2. really? by verbalcontract · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google Street View: Hey, we want to update Google Maps so ordinary citizens can more easily find their way around cities. Can we go into your military base with this car mounted with cameras in every direction? Seeing as so many ordinary citizens are going to and from the Starbucks next to Colonel Hapablap's quarters. Even though it's against Google policy to do this in military bases.

    Military Base: I see no problem with that.

    Seriously, how did this happen in the first place? Doesn't the military have security?

    1. Re:really? by sm62704 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Doesn't the military have security?

      They did in the early 1970s when I was in the Air Force. My normal job at Dover was towing Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE; compressors, generators, air conditioners, etc) around the flight line. Note that Dover was a MAC base, it's where the dead soldiers were flown from Vietnam to. I didn't know that until long after I was discharged and had no idea that those alumanum boxes were full of corpses.

      I was once volunteered to do a "security detal". The SPs (Same as MPs only the Air Force has to be different) drove me to the flight line and traded me an empty cardboard box for my security badge. My job was to put the box inside an aircraft, not wearing the badge.

      That was actually fun!

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    2. Re:really? by mitgib · · Score: 2, Interesting

      but they don't listen to you because their job is 100% useless 99.9% of the time, and identifying the remaining .1% of the time is trivial. This is so dead on from my experience being in the Air Force back on the early 80's at least. Reminds me of the time we jacked the security guys at gunpoint when they crossed our barrier on the flight line with live weapons on the aircraft. You need to remember that at least what I saw in the Air Force, those that washed out of their chosen career due to not being able to complete the training became cops.
      --
      Being a spelling & grammar Nazi is a sign you do not poses the intelligence to contribute to the conversation
  3. Re:I'm trying to discover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is a bad thing because it provides a VERY detailed description of the base and it's buildings. I'm far from a hawk but providing any potential enemy with detailed pictures of military installations is just plain stupid. I would think that the danger in this sort of information would be self-evident. Then again I don't believe that Google has any right to put pictures of my house, or any one else's for that matter, on the Internet.

  4. ITS NOT CENSORSHIP by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Most anything on a military base belongs to the military. Most of the buildings, most of the vehicles, most of the people - GI stands for Government Issue... Therefore in this case it is not 'censorship' in the least.

  5. Re:I'm trying to discover... by daveschroeder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Obscurity isn't an exclusive substitute for security.

    But any good security model employs security in depth, including elements from security by design and security through obscurity. In fact, it's foolish to not do both.

    I'm sorry, but the justification that anyone can get onto some ungated bases and drive/walk around is absolutely no excuse for Google Street View coverage of US military installations.

  6. Re:omg facism by sm62704 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm not goint to say what base or where it was, but in the early 1970s I was on a base with thousands of B52s loaded with nuclear warheads waiting for WWIII/Armageddon. There were several SR-71s and U2s as well.

    Out of curiosity I looked at Google Maps, and although the bombers are gone, I saw SR71s and U2s still there.

    But I wonder, are the planes I saw at Google Maps real, or were they fakes/decoys? Or were the Google photos themselves fake, with the B-5s photoshopped out? Hmmm, I should check Google Maps for Dover DE and look for C-5As and C-141s.

    Yep, they're still there. Wonder what the AF did with all the old bombers? Send them to Iraq?

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  7. Re:Having lived on a military base... by mark_hill97 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I used to work for AAFES on MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL. While the things you said about deliveries and such used to be true after 9/11 it all changed. At our base there was a special gate JUST for deliveries, where the contents would be examined in depth. Coming onto the base you would be subjected to a high level of examination, mirrors under the car, examining everything. It was a nightmare, 4-5 hours just to get onto the base if you were driving (I lived near enough that i would walk into work). As for jumping the closed fences, forget about it, those things had barbed wire and not the single thin stuff it was the wrapped heavy duty stuff. Constant security patrols would be going up and down the edge of the base. I myself was so frequently detained for being suspicious (I walked, it was Florida, nobody walks in Florida!) that the guys back at the station knew me by name. Granted this was all immediately after 9/11 and up until mid '03 so my information may not be as relevant anymore.

  8. I guess by BigJClark · · Score: 2, Interesting


    I'm the only who thought about, why not change the pictures of the base, to be wholly incorrect, or swap them around. In this way, your average civilian Joe can enjoy zooming around the military base at home, and your average terrorist Bob cannot effectively plan an assault.

    Just a thought..

    --

    Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
  9. Re:omg facism by sm62704 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You can believe what you want, but I saw more SR-71s parked together than what the media reported having been built. It must have been the same way with the bombers.

    Wouldn't have been very smart of them to be truthful about how many spy planes and bomers they'd built.

    I'm not sure if the U2s were natively stationed there, but I beleive they were as they were there quite a lot.

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest