Mumbai Attacks Prompt Request for Google Earth Censorship

An Indian Court is being petitioned to ban Google Earth following suggestions that the online satellite imaging program was used to assist in planning the terrorist attacks that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai last month.

A petition entered at the Bombay High Court alleges that Google Earth “aids terrorists in plotting attacks”. Advocate Amit Karkhanis has urged the court to ask Google to blur images of highly sensitive areas in the country until a decision has been reached.

There are indications that the gunmen who stormed Mumbai on November 26 were technically advanced. The group appears to have used complex GPS systems to navigate their way to Mumbai by sea. They also communicated by sat phone, used cell phones with several different SIM cards, and might have monitored events as the siege unfolded via hand-held Blackberry devices.

Police in Mumbai have said the terrorists familiarized themselves with the streets of Mumbai’s financial district using satellite pictures, according to the only gunman that was captured alive. The commandos who stormed the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai said the militants had headed straight for the building’s CCTV control room.

Well, let’s hope they do ban it, because we all know…it’s certainly not the terrorists that kill people, it’s Google Earth. Darn you, Google.