Anti-Terrorist Strike Pinpointed on Google Earth

Blogger uses Google Earth to call up sattelite images of region attacked by American forces

Using news accounts, a blogger and Google Earth enthusiast managed to pinpoint the Pakistani village where American forces recently rained death from above on a suspected terrorist.

Baitullah Mehsud, believe to be the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, was the target of an attack near Zangari Algad -- which was easy enough to find using Google's database of satellite imagery.

The images from South Waziristan are out of date, originally taken in January of 2007.

But the speed with which Ogle Earth blogger Stefan Geens pinpointed the location using free, online tools is head-spinning.

And the treatise on modern warfare doesn't end there.

The missile attack was made by a remote-controlled drone aircraft -- which, soon enough, might be as easy to pilot as accessing the iTunes Store.

While a world away the military was taking out a target, back home in the States a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a new application for the iPhone.

No, it won't find restaurants near Zangari Algad on Yelp. Instead, it allows for soldiers in the field to control an unarmed, hand-thrown reconnaisance drone.

In other words, watch out terrorists -- we've got consumer electronic devices, and we aren't afraid to use them.

Image from Google Earth.

Jackson West wonders if the MIT project will be approved by the App Store.

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