Friday, February 17, 2006

The Google Maps (Formerly) Secret Places Tour

The first time I fired up Google Earth, I did the same thing that I did when I first tried TerraServer: find as many “secret” places that I could. The first thing I noticed with Google Earth was that the roof of the White House had been painted out, as well as the rooftops of the Department of the Treasury and the Eisenhower Office Building (OEOB), both next door to the White House. Since then, they have become “uncensored” and you can see that there’s really nothing to see there, anyway. At least there’s nothing that you can’t see from the top of the Washington Monument, which is open to tourists with cameras. That Google had censored the White House rooftop, one of the lower rooftops in the area, was curious, so I went on to look at what else was or wasn’t “censored.” I could view the CIA and NSA just fine, with nothing photoshopped out.

Having traveled to China, the land ‘o oppressive communism, I am used to having photography be prohibited, but I’m a little uncomfortable with being told not to take pictures in public places in the United States. This happened to me once at a U.S.
airport when I took pictures of a dog running loose on the runway. Security was more interested in stopping me from photographing the sensitive area than making the runway safe for aircraft.

Thus the “secret” tour. Not that these places area really secret any more, but it’s neat to see what Google is and is not afraid of publishing. Remember, the Russians already have high resolution imagery of all this stuff. Lest you think I’m making us all more vulnerable to terrorists, there are locations that will remain undisclosed.

You might as well see the buildings for which your tax dollars are paying.

The White House

The Pentagon

The CIA (There’s almost nothing secret about it anymore.)

The NSA at Fort Meade in Maryland.
The NSA was established by the National Security Act of 1947 at the same time as the CIA, but wasn’t publicly disclosed until 1974. Imagine the press conference that day.

National Reconnaissance Office. I got their address from their spiffy web site, and was especially impressed with their kids website. Exactly why the NRO needs to spend my tax dollars on a kids site is beyond me. If you fly into Dulles Airport (IAD) on runway 1L or 1R, you'll fly right over the NRO.

Department of Homeland Security.
This is one of their locations, known officially as the Naval District of Washington Nebraska Avenue Complex, formerly known as Naval Telecommunications and Computer Security Command. Originally, the location was Mt. Vernon College, President Roosevelt gave it to the Navy during World Ward Two with the promise to the College that they could have it back after the war is over. I wonder if Bush told the Navy it could have its complex back after the War on Terrorism.

Mystery Location, Northwest Washington D.C. I have lived in DC almost my whole life, and I have always wondered what the heck this thing is. It's just a mound surrounded by a fence with Federal Government "Stay the Heck Out or We're Allowed to Shoot" signs. I wonder if the people who live in the houses next to it know. If anyone knows what this is, let me know.

Andrews Air Force Base. This is where Air Force One is based.

Ronald Reagan National Airport. Remember, if you hang out there taking pictures less detailed, you’ll get arrested. Our enemies might figure out that airplanes land and take off from this strategic location.

Camp David – not that you can actually see anything.

Camp Peary (Summer Camp for CIA folks. This used to be as secret as the CIA)

The Naval Observatory. (Official Residence of the Vice President, and censored by Google. You can tell they were trying to be subtle by pixelating out the detail, but it’s still obvious. Why is this more “secret” than the White House?)

Dick Cheney’s retreat on the Eastern Shore (Not too detailed at all.)

Sugar Grove, WV, Echelon Antenna Station. If you have to know what Echelon is there are obsessed people watching the watchers who will tell you. It’s well-known enough now to have a Wikipedia entry.

Area 51.
(Only parts of this picture have been censored. See if you can spot the photoshopped areas.) Area 51 isn’t even secret anymore, and development of new aircraft has moved to other, undisclosed locations. Area 51’s budget still remains secret enough that Congress can’t cut it. The airport code for Area 51 is (K)XTA. Runway lengths are as follows: Runway 12-30  5420' x 120' concrete Runway 14-32  12000' x 200' concrete. According to the Jeppesen-Sanderson
Aviation Database, there is no fee for landing there. However, it is underneath restricted airspace with an "unknown" controlling agency.

Mount Weather. (Apocalyptic continuity-of-command center and FEMA center.)

The Greenbriar, West Virginia (Former Congressional apocalypse shelter.) Like Mt. Weather, this was exposed by the Washington Post. The only good thing about an apocalypse, though, is that we might lose Congress.

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Not secret – this is where the Air Force dismantles B-52s and displays them for Russian satellite verification.

Russian Embassy Compound. From this commanding location, they can see quite a bit of Washington and pick up just about every radio signal in town. If I had antennas there and a reasonable budget for receivers, spectrum analyzers, decoding hardware and software, computers and some smart programmers, you would be shocked at the intercepts I could produce.

Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. The media isn't allowed to shoot photos here, because then we would know too much.



Northfield, Minnesota.
I know about this only because I went to school here, and it's not that secret. However, it is the Civil Defense evacuation center for Minneapolis -- St. Paul. Two of the dorms were federally funded and have tile walls inside. (Tile walls = easy to clean = field hospital.) The inter-building tunnels on Campus, since closed, housed stockpiles of food and water. I'm sure there were other cities with designated evacuation centers, but I have no idea how to find them. Do you know your designated evacuation center? I live in DC, and I have no idea where my local evacuation center is.



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