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An illustrative picture of an Al Aqsa militant shooting a gun in the air (Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff October 25, 2007 |
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The British Guardian reported on Thursday that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a terrorist group affiliated with Fatah, has been using Google Earth to target sites in Israel for rocket attacks.
One of the Brigade's commanders, Khaled Jaabari, also known as Abu Walid, told the paper that the militants check their own maps against Google's information in order to gain clarity on "sensitive areas," according to the Jerusalem Post.
"It's a secret process, but we're very excited by the results," Ynet quoted Abu Walid as saying, citing the British newspaper.
The British are also reportedly concerned by terrorists' use of the Internet mapping system. The report said that insurgents sympathetic to al-Qaeda were using aerial photography in Google Earth to pinpoint potential targets inside British bases around the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
"There is a constant threat of reconnaissance missions to access our bases and using these internet images is just another method of how this is conducted," British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said.
However not everyone is convinced that Google Earth's technology poses a serious security threat. Professor Gerald Steinberg, chairman of the political science department at Bar-Ilan University said that the images are not up to date, and therefore do not provide an accurate enough picture to cause real concern.
"They are not real-time pictures, and they were not taken yesterday. I don't think this is a major change in security," Steinberg said.
Google reportedly admitted that its mapping system could potentially problematic, but refused to comment on reports of Al-Aqsa using its technology.
"The imagery visible on Google Earth and Google Maps is not unique: commercial high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world is widely available from numerous sources. Indeed, anyone who flies above or drives by a piece of property can obtain similar information."
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