Satellite Imagery - A toy or a weapon

See what comes out of procrastination? I have been meaning to write this post for some time now but always used to procrastinate. I have been playing with Google Earth for sometime now. Firstly I was so fascinated by the power and everyday used to locate my house over here in the US and back in India, just for the fun of it (Read one of my earlier posts). Once the initial novelty wore off, I started thinking about some other aspects. I mean if the commercial satellites can have so much clarity and details, I just wondered what powers would the military satellites have and the level of detail available to them. So if they want to take out a particular person all they have to do is track him/her on satellite and order a hit from local thugs. They don't even have to dirty their own hands. And this is not only US. Everyone who has satellites should be having this capability. In fact I thought about writing a letter to the Prime Minister of India and the President of India, but never got around to it. I will write to them and see if they take it seriously.

And now that the story is out and various governments are indeed expressing their concerns (http://www.computerworld.com/newsletter/0,4902,104426,00.html?nlid=SEC2) I think people have to take notice. Not that I know or think there is a way to stop this, but this should make people more wary of the satellite espionage and make them more alert.

Let me know what you think.