It’s interesting what you can’t see: I was looking at the Google map of my old house a few moments ago, and moved over toward sights like the White House… and note that the roof of the White House, the Old Executive Office Building, and the Treasury have been blanked out. Must be some classified air conditioners there.
Further down Pennsylvania Avenue, the entire Capitol complex has been blurred and pixellated, ruining our view of our Capitol building. Go out Massachusetts, and you’ll discover the same thing has happened to the Naval Observatory where the Vice President’s home is.
Yet, the Pentagon is completely visible, including the reconstruction of the damaged section — this image was obviously taken in 2002.
Even CIA Headquarters hasn’t gotten this special treatment, although I surmise that it was originally built with satellites in mind.
What could possibly be so secret that these relatively low resolution images must be blurred? Are they worried that terrorists using Google Maps might find out that there are weapons stationed on the White House roof? Gee, that would be a revelation, wouldn’t it?
Why does this, like every other Bush administration initiative, make me feel like our “security” is solely for the sake of appearances?
It just makes me want to search around for more blurred spots, just to confirm my suspicions. “Aha! I knew something sneaky was going on there!”
