Google Earth

Its not surprising that the same technology that has helped make us become a world power is being used by an insurgent force. Keeping within asymetric techniques of attacking the weaknesses of a superior force the enemy has not only learned to attack our weaknesses he has adapted to using our own systems. The weakness he has attacked here is our open democratic system of capitalism. The American free market enterpirse and laws that protect it create an open source environment that can fuel the enemy intelligience machine for as long as the war continues. This same system is also a HUMINT paradise to the insurgent intelligence community, the American melting pot and open system we live in is very condusive for HUMINT operations.

BHG

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Originally Posted by BNopsSgt

Its not surprising that the same technology that has helped make us become a world power is being used by an insurgent force. Keeping within asymetric techniques of attacking the weaknesses of a superior force the enemy has not only learned to attack our weaknesses he has adapted to using our own systems. The weakness he has attacked here is our open democratic system of capitalism. The American free market enterpirse and laws that protect it create an open source environment that can fuel the enemy intelligience machine for as long as the war continues. This same system is also a HUMINT paradise to the insurgent intelligence community, the American melting pot and open system we live in is very condusive for HUMINT operations.

BHG

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Why not turn the tables? What prevents us from working with Google to capture foreign IP addresses of those who query military installation imagery? Get Google to post some misleading imagery for certain installations? Accidentally lose bogus high resolution imagery maps while on patrol?

The first two options above may or may not be possible, but the third possibility is always available. Depending on the sophistication, the misinformation campaign could also sow mistrust - was the bogus map an honest mistake or was the deliverer an agent of the infidels? Heck, even a simple rumor that the Google Earth images are purposely altered might do the trick or at least force insurgents to spend more time and effort confirming the Google Earth stuff.

Hi Shek,

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Originally Posted by Shek

Why not turn the tables? What prevents us from working with Google to capture foreign IP addresses of those who query military installation imagery? Get Google to post some misleading imagery for certain installations? Accidentally lose bogus high resolution imagery maps while on patrol?

The first two options above may or may not be possible, but the third possibility is always available. Depending on the sophistication, the misinformation campaign could also sow mistrust - was the bogus map an honest mistake or was the deliverer an agent of the infidels? Heck, even a simple rumor that the Google Earth images are purposely altered might do the trick or at least force insurgents to spend more time and effort confirming the Google Earth stuff.

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Personally, I'd go with the rumour combined with a sattelite version of a Potemkin Village - Google is notorious for telling the government to mind their own business.

Marc

Our S2 shop has a variety of different machines to choose from- ASAS-L, CIDNE, JIOC, Falconview and ArcGis. We are supposed to be getting a new one next week, CPOF. The problem with these machines is that they all utilize SIPR, and as soon as you discover that it doesn't have the map datum for the area that you need, a contractor has to be called etc etc. Our S6 can't fix it because of the classification. Frustrating.

A 96B who had some emphasis on GEOINT training would be incredibly useful, but I don't see that happening unless I figure out a way to teach them.

Google tailors Earth for DOD users

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Google wants to help Defense Department users fuse and distribute their geospatial data with the same technology that powers the Google Earth application used by 200 million people worldwide...

...In the past year, Google has beefed up its team focused on DOD and other federal agencies, more than tripling its staff to 14 people from four a year ago, Painter said. He was reluctant to disclose customers, but said the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the Coast Guard and the state of Alabama through a grant from the Homeland Security Department use Google Earth products.

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Slapout?

Some time in the future there might be some public announcements but in the meantime I will say this:
1-The new head of the Alabama Department of Public Safety(besides State Troopers also covers roads and critical infrastructure) is the retired SAC (special agent in charge) of the Secret Service in Montgomery,Al. The first time in their history they went outside the department, not to mention he came from federal LE.
2-The lead Law Enforcement Agency at DHS is the Secret Service.
3-For obvious reasons for years the Secret Service has had "one of a kind" surveillance and tracking capabilities.
4-The terrorist and all bad guys in general are going to experience Boots on the ground, Eyes on the people!!, and mind on the Mission like it has never been done before.
Me and Bubba been busy:wry:

FYI:

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is now accepting applications for its 2007 USGIF Scholarship Program. USGIF will award more than $50,000 in scholarships this year. The deadline is 01 June 07.

All graduate and undergraduate students studying fields relating to the geospatial intelligence tradecraft are encouraged to apply.

Applications can be found on the Foundation's website at www.usgif.org/Education_Scholarships.aspx.

USGIF is also awarding scholarships to well-qualified high school seniors planning to enter a geospatial intelligence or GIS-related program at the college or university level.

Questions can be directed to scholarships@usgif.org.

...and yet more exploitation - from the useful to the ridiculous - of Google Earth:

Google Earth Hacks

Lots of file downloads, as well as blog and forum features.

...another educational FYI:

The Departments of Geography, Psychology, and Justice Studies at the University of Regina have developed an institute for the advanced training of participants in the statistical and geographical information systems (GIS) analysis of crime and justice data. (with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) and Statistics Canada).

The National Summer Institute (NSI) is an intensive, hands-on workshop held in Regina, Canada's "Queen City", over seven days: June 17-23, 2007.

The NSI is open to approximately 40 participants, including academics, researchers, graduate students, and practitioners in the field (such as police, justice workers, etc.) Participants should have some background preparation in statistics (such as a university course), however, no background in GIS (mapping data) is required.

Funding, academic credit, and RCMP continuing education credit are available.

More information and an application form can be found at: http://www.uregina.ca/arts/NSI/

Another GIS display can be found at http://press.jrc.it/NewsExplorer/home/en/latest.html, an EU project. Between overlaying news geo-spatially (with the option of linking to Google Earth), it also provides a human network analysis (e.g. http://press.jrc.it/NewsExplorer/fla...l.jsp?id=53651, or perhaps http://press.jrc.it/NewsExplorer/entities/en/1267.html )

Both of these features I'm working to integrate into http://conflictwiki.org

Note: they seem to be having a licensing problem because an error message with yesterday's date pops up on each use.

11 Apr 07 WSJ article on this site mentioned earlier in the thread:

RSOE Havaria Information Service - Alertmap

Real-Time Map Monitors Disasters Across the Globe

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...A small team of emergency-preparedness professionals maintains the map around the clock while performing other responsibilities for their work with the NGO. "We are always trying to look for information that is confirmed, either by an authority or an official, competent organization," says Mr. Rafael. "We do not take information from blogs or other unconfirmed reports."

AlertMap is funded and staffed by the Hungarian National Association of Radio Distress-Signaling and Infocommunications, a nonprofit group where Mr. Rafael serves as deputy secretary-general. The group works with and receives funding from some of Hungary's government agencies and the European Union, for which it performs various emergency-related services.

Mr. Rafael's group, known by its Hungarian initials RSOE, provides emergency updates to the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to warn tourists of trouble spots abroad. His organization also has the obscure but vital responsibility of coordinating navigation on the Danube River and Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Europe....

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Originally Posted by GIMpublisher

....The public version is limited, but the same system can be used, and is being used, by a growing number of law enforcement, government, and military organizations. And it can do alot more than what you see on the public version.....

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Here's a version that they've put together for the Tenneessee Regional Information Center:

TRIC Incident Tracking Map

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....The mapping system is open to the public at large for access and viewing based on its open source content. It is currently linked within the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) Tennessee and Law Enforcement portals. The map URL will soon be linked to the TN Bureau of Investigation website, the TN Dept. of Safety and TN Office of Homeland Security websites.

Two additional maps are being developed; a Sex Offender Registry map and a Violent Offender map. These maps will be used operationally to assist with the investigations of Amber Alerts and violent crimes in progress....

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As an aside, but keeping to the topic, NASA's World Wind is available for free download.

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3D Engine: World Wind allows any user to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging high resolution LandSat imagery and SRTM elevation data to experience Earth in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there....

Blue Marble: World Wind has a full copy of the Blue Marble, a spectacular true-color image of the entire Earth as seen on NASA's Earth Observatory: The Blue Marble....

Land Sat 7: Using World Wind, you can continue to zoom past Blue Marble and reveal the extremely detailed seamless mosaic of LandSat 7 data....

SRTM: Combining LandSat 7 imagery with Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Data, World Wind can display a dramatic view of the Earth at eye level. Users will literally be able to fly across the world in any direction....

NASA SVS: Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has produced a set of visually intense animations that demonstrate a variety of subjects such as hurricane dynamics and seasonal changes across the globe....

MODIS: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS produces a set of time relevant data that's updated every day. MODIS catalogs fires, floods, dust, smoke, storms and even volcanic activity....

GLOBE: World Wind is capable of browsing through and displaying GLOBE data based on any time the user wants. For example, a user can download today's (or any previous day's) temperature across the world....

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...and more.

Learning the buttonology for GIS software is one thing, but making sense of the data and illustrating in a matter useful to decision makers is what separates a techie from an analyst. I recommend training for your GEOINT folks from guys who do this full time. That, or you can outsource the mapping. These guys seem to have some interesting approaches that are working for the corporate risk management and security world: Geocritical

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Originally Posted by pcmfr

Learning the buttonology for GIS software is one thing, but making sense of the data and illustrating in a matter useful to decision makers is what separates a techie from an analyst. I recommend training for your GEOINT folks from guys who do this full time.

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I fully agree with you there - and the training opportunities for GEOINT are expanding as the field grows along with its spectrum of application. There are a lot of programs out there dedicated for LE GIS analysts, but the availability of broad-spectrum training is increasing as well.

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That, or you can outsource the mapping. These guys seem to have some interesting approaches that are working for the corporate risk management and security world: Geocritical

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There is a lot of outsourcing going on. Much of it is crap, because many of those looking for support have no idea what they're looking for, or how to define quality product. Worse, much support is provided through the old boy network within the senior executive chain rather than by competitive bidding to select those best able to fulfill support requirements. Hordes of incompetent amateurs maintain comfortable lifestyles despite the complete lack of a quality product due to connections they made in college or while in government service earlier in life. Like in many other walks of life, ethics is serious problem, despite much exhortation to the contrary.

My viewpoint is driven by the fact that I currently work security/risk intelligence in the corporate world myself. Given that perspective, I found the products shown as examples on the GeoCritical site to be less than impressive. Any reasonably smart guy with a computer and 'net connection could put those maps together. Hell, updated equivalents or better of their samples on Avian Influenza, Earthquakes, and Hurricanes are readily found for free on specialty sites on the open web. Unless they're hiding their real product from the casual viewer (which doesn't make sense from a marketing standpoint), it does not appear that it requires either dedicated GIS software or true GEOINT analytic capability to duplicate (or improve upon) their efforts.

....interesting blog, along the lines of the thread topic area: IMINT & Analysis

Open source military analysis, strategic thinking, and Google Earth imagery interpretation. Comments are welcome and encouraged.

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Originally Posted by Jedburgh

....interesting blog, along the lines of the thread topic area: IMINT & Analysis

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Very cool website.... thanks for digging it up!

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Originally Posted by RTK

Anyone used Google Earth in conjunction with SIPR SIGACTS on a local computer to conduct pattern anaysis?

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In conjunction with SIPR SIGACTS, why not use BFT/FBCB2 data? All reported SIGACTS are displayed on the real-time BFT/FBCB2 map/overlay.

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Originally Posted by Sean Osborne

In conjunction with SIPR SIGACTS, why not use BFT/FBCB2 data? All reported SIGACTS are displayed on the real-time BFT/FBCB2 map/overlay.

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Because BFT doesn't always have clear 1M CIB.

...Translate that for the rest of us, please? <blinks>

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Originally Posted by Penta

...Translate that for the rest of us, please? <blinks>

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CIB = Controlled Image Base (essentially, aerial/satellite photography, stored digitally)

1M = CIB sampled at 1 metre ground sample distance.

...I think *lol*