In the first Gulf War, the U.S. military used deception to execute its famous "Hail Mary" tactical maneuver and surprise Iraqi forces. That strategy would be virtually impossible in today's world, where readily available commercial imagery could be used to easily spot massing forces.
In 2001, in fact, right before the U.S. went into Afghanistan, the Pentagon bought up the available commercial satellite imagery of the region, exercising what became known as "checkbook shutter control." But by the time the U.S. and coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003, the U.S. government didn't even bother to try to restrict the availability of commercial imagery. It probably wouldn't have made much sense, given the number of countries and companies operating commercial satellites.
In this month's issue of Discover magazine, I look at how the availability of commercial satellite imagery and the rise of online services like Google Earth have challenged governments' ability to control what people can see, and given virtually anyone with an Internet connection the ability to "spy":
Google Earth, and competing services, still have their limitations. The imagery varies in age, and amateur sleuths are often not as good as they think they are at spotting and correctly identifying relevant sites (see for example, Arms Control Wonk's "wonk school" that tasks people to analyze a Google Earth image --- it's harder than you think).
But as more images -- from satellites, aircraft and even ground-level cameras -- become available for sale or appear for free online, it challenges the ability of governments to keep things secret.
[Area 51 Image courtesy of GeoEye]
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