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Calif. Politican Thinks Blurred Online Maps Would Deter Terrorists
Hugh Pickens writes "California Assemblyman Joel Anderson plans to introduce a bill to force Google Earth and similar services to blur images of so-called 'soft targets' like schools, hospitals, churches and government buildings to protect them from terrorists. 'All I'm trying to do is stop terrorists,' said Anderson. 'I don't want California to be helping map out future targets for terrorists.' Concerns that detailed satellite imagery and photographs available on Web services could help terrorists plan attacks are not new, with reports that terrorists have used such imagery to carry out attacks in Iraq and Israel, and an Indian court is considering a ban on Google Earth following reports that its imagery played a part in the Mumbai terrorist attacks."
"Security expert Bruce Schneier recently wondered what other things legislators might consider banning to prevent terrorism: 'Bank robbers have long used cars and motorcycles as getaway vehicles, and horses before then. I haven't seen it talked about yet, but the Mumbai terrorists used boats as well. They also wore boots. They ate lunch at restaurants, drank bottled water and breathed the air,' wrote Schneier. 'Society survives all of this because the good uses of infrastructure far outweigh the bad uses, even though the good uses are — by and large — small and pedestrian and the bad uses are rare and spectacular.'"
To be fair, the actual text of the bill only requires the images to be blurred if the Operator already identifies the building. Specifically:
Still pretty dumb, though.
What, is a blur like a magical force field? Sheesh, any *good* terrorist would do it the old fashion way anyway - go to the address and take a picture. There are so many factors to a terrorist attack, how you enter, (if) you want to be alive after- how to exit... blurs do nothing but...make the building blurry.
Won't work here and now, of course. It's not, after all, hard to rent a car and drive past a place to take pictures years before you hit it.
Oh, we in the UK are well ahead of you! Hardened terrorists like this man are trembling in fear at our powerful new anti-photography laws, despite the efforts of some bleeding heart liberals.
Sigh. Even the Russians are scoring points off us.
But if you dare say "Maybe we shouldn't put automatic assault rifles into the hands of anyone with a driver's license", then the gun freaks go ape-shit. Why is it that they'll ban and outlaw everything, except the obvious?
First of all, all legal automatic weapons require registration (including a background check, fingerprinting, etc) with the ATF, a signature from your local sheriff or chief of police, and payment of a (admittedly small) tax. They're also now obscenely expensive, as so few even exist that can even be transfered.
What can be obtained is a semi-automatic weapon---one that fires with each distinct pull of the trigger. There are few special regulations on such weapons, although California has actually done more to restrict them than most other states. For example, you can't own a rifle with a fixed magazine of greater than 10 rounds capacity.
As for why they don't ban guns outright, I refer you to District of Columbia v. Heller. To paraphrase, the basic conclusion of the supreme court was that individuals have a natural right to self defense, and that a ban of an entire class of weapons suitable for self defense is unconstitutional.
So if I know it's there, I have to hide it and basically call MORE attention to it, but if I don't know it's there, I don't have to hide it? What kind of retarded logic is that?
Exactly. That's called the Streisand Effect! It was named after a member of America's most outstanding group of individuals renowned for litigiousness and not thinking things through. Most of them are from California.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
Agreed. Plus, GPS devices should be outlawed -- terrorists could use them to navigate in lieu of maps.
Have you heard of "Selective Availability"? You know, the thing where the precision of GPS data is intentionally downgraded to prevent people from doing anything nasty with it?
I'm just saying, they already thought of this. It's not much of a "hypothetical" point you raise - the US controls the GPS satellites, so there's no need to control GPS receivers.
Bow-ties are cool.
The Soviet Union continued to obfuscate maps available to civilians up until its demise. A friend who lived there in the '70's commented that he wasn't supposed to take pictures of bridges and the like, either.
You're not supposed to take pictures of bridges and the like here either.
http://i1.democracynow.org/2004/7/1/pakistani_immigrant_being_deported_for_taking
July 01, 2004
Pakistani Immigrant Being Deported for Taking Pictures of NY Reservoir Speaks from Jail
Pakistani immigrant Ansar Mahmood, lost his final judicial appeal this week and is scheduled to be deported. He was first picked up in October 2001 for taking photographs of an upstate New York reservoir. No terror-related charges were ever filed against him but investigators found him in minor violation of immigration law. He joins us from prison where he has been held for nearly three years.
Which has been switched off since 2000 (apparently)...http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/FGCS/info/sans_SA/docs/statement.html
Maybe the senator should move to Afghanistan and team up with the Taliban. Their ends goals of a meedieval society are remarkably consistent. Maybe that was the Taliban's plan all along!
Interestingly, be careful taking GPS to China. You need special approval from the government or you get arrested for espionage. Maybe here's a model for California?
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Yeah and ban the yellow pages because they have maps and addresses. It's just a manual for terrorists! Plus then they can call with annoying phone messages, so it's even worse than Google Earth.
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Technically, we are beyond survival.