taiwanese pancake lumpy
Google for the first time in 2019 published Satellite images of various parts of Taiwan: Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan and Taichung. As it sometimes happens, the first time turned into an event. In the photos of the Xingdian region (New Taipei), users found a secret air defense base of the country with Patriot missile launchers.
The images turned out to be of such high quality that enthusiasts were able to identify models of launchers and even missiles.
Information about the disclosure of classified objects quickly reached Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, and it did not take long for the department to respond. First, the Ministry of Defense asked Google to edit the images of Xindian, and secondly, it hastened to reassure citizens, saying that the temporary location of the rocket launchers is in the frame – in case of mobilization their distribution changes.
French trail on the sands of the Sahara
On the Reddit forum in August 2021 published Images from the Sahara Desert with a detailed view of a small settlement. The author of the find asked for help identifying the objects.
Together, users managed to find out that part of the asphalt road is a runway, a strange fence is a chain of high-explosive mines, and the cars are military equipment. Photos of the military base surfaced on Reddit.
Then journalists began to study the finding. They concluded that the photographs depicted the Madama military airfield, which was built in Niger by the French in 1931 but continues to operate to this day. In 2014, the French government ordered 50 military helicopters to be placed there. Nothing is known about the reaction of the French authorities in relation to this incident.
Belgium ran out of patience
Autumn 2018 in Europe burned Another scandal involving Google. The reason was the same satellite images.
This time, the photos showed the Belgian military base Klein Brogel – with planes, soldiers and even US atomic bombs.
The Belgian Ministry of Defense politely requested that the objects indicated on the maps be retouched, but Google ignored this request.
Due to the lack of response of the American company, the Belgian authorities decided to act radically and sued the company. They chose a convincing argument: the Belgians said that the availability of footage of a public domain military base poses a threat of a terrorist attack, and this will have consequences because of the presence of nuclear weapons on the base. He received commissions, including from the Americans. As a result, the pictures were deleted anyway.
Raise your own for strangers to fear
The US military has also suffered from Google’s all-seeing eye, and this isn’t about Area 51, whose secrets were revealed in satellite photos long ago.
In “Google Maps” enthusiasts in 2011 discovered Photos of the secret Yucca Lake base in Nevada. The satellite had chosen such a good time that during photography the base was testing the latest US Air Force RQ-170 Sentinel drones at the time.
The US Department of Defense considered Google’s actions a violation of military secrecy and demanded that the images be removed immediately.
As a result, they were deleted, but the Yucca Lake case is still remembered online as a textbook example of an IT company’s recklessness.
Here we also note that the objects of the US military are perhaps the most favorite areas of interest for Google map researchers. Some dataDuring the entire existence of the geolocation service, hundreds of US military infrastructure facilities have been discovered both on the territory of the country and abroad.
Fear and the nuclear threat in Las Vegas
Knowing the existence of “Region 51” it is easy to guess that there are “Zones” with a smaller row number. One of them – “District 6” – in 2018 found near Las Vegas using the discussed Google service. Judging by the map, this is a relatively small military facility located on the territory of the Nevada National Security Service. It is surrounded by a fence, the facility has a runway.
Officially, the purpose of this base has not been disclosed. But Darwin Morgan, spokesman for the US National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the facility was used to test ultrafast background radiation recorders.
According to him, the military is working on sensors that can collect and transmit information before it is destroyed in the event of a bomb explosion. Journalists also learned that Zone 6 has been in operation since at least 2005 and that drones take off regularly.
Source: Gazeta
