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Our friend at Geographic Travels with Catholicgauze brought this Washington Post article to our attention in a recent post.

It appears perpetrators in the recent Mumbai attacks used geographic tools including GPS and satellite imagery to plot and execute their scheme. GPS devices were employed to navigate through ocean waters from Pakistan to the East Coast of India, enabling the attackers to stay on course despite limited prior sailing experience, while digital maps of Mumbai and detailed satellite imagery allowed them to devise a plan of operation, despite never having set foot in the city.

The leaders of the attacks also allegedly used voice-recognition software to obscure their accents and distinct dialectical spellings in order to prevent investigators from identifying their geographic region of origin.

Catholicgauze concluded his post on the topic by commenting:

“This continues the trend of geographic technology being used for the wrong reasons.”
The wrong reasons?

It’s an interesting contention, and one of great import to the geographic community. Some have gone so far as to suggest that Google limit the amount of geographic information made available to the public; both the Ogle Earth and Google Earth blogs have commented on this (Sven of Ogle Earth provides a particularly convincing retort to one lawyer’s attempted suit against Google Earth). Adhering somewhat to these demands, Google has removed satellite imagery from U.S. military installations on domestic and foreign soil.

It seems to me that, like most new technologies, sophisticated geographic tools primarily serve to reduce the time and manpower required to complete a given task, but do not fundamentally change the equation. In another era, terrorists might have had to recruit an experienced sailor to their team, a member with an unidentifiable accent, and someone with a working knowledge of the geographic landscape of Mumbai. Sure, it would have taken longer. But would those obstacles have prevented them from accomplishing the mission? Probably not. The simple reality is that terrorists tend to be rather determined, savvy, and resourceful individuals. And where there’s a will, there’s a way.

But what do you think?

Should some geographic information be kept off the internet and out of the public arena? What should international investigators be doing, and what geographic tools should they be using, to better prevent and counteract terrorist threats?

Do you know of any examples of misuse of geographic technology, or over-reliance on geographic technology in lieu of traditional geographic knowledge and skills, that has led to failed ploys or ventures? If so, please send them along!

Sarah for My Wonderful World

Image courtesy Vivian Salama Wanderlust Blog.
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