Speaking for the Government

It was good to see PC Magazine run Chloe Albanesius' piece about all the imagery now available in virtual mapping programs. Her lead lays all the cards on the table for the subsequent analysis:

Virtual mapping programs have garnered some criticism from those who believe they might be adequate tools for terrorists staking out U.S. landmarks, but there is little the government can do to prevent publication of these images, according to the federal agency that handles satellite photography.

Unfortunately, her paragraph about that agency could have been framed in more precise language:

There are no federal guidelines to which companies like Microsoft or Google must adhere before the release of programs like Microsoft's Live Search Maps, Google Earth or Google Street Views, said Dave Burpee, a public affairs officer with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency does not handle Internet mapping issues.

Presumably NGA is part of Homeland Security, although an alternative reading would have complete separation between NGA and Homeland Security. In either case the paragraph does not indicate any government agency responsible for "Internet mapping issues." This is probably a good thing, although Ms. Albanesius may have inadvertently alerted the government to this lacuna! More interesting, however, is the text that follows:

Burpee stressed that the NGA is "very much on the side of openness" and would not deign to tell Microsoft and Google how to operate their businesses.

But Burpee did acknowledge that "in a perfect world, for the support and defense of U.S. troops, it would be better if that [detailed imagery] wasn't there." But NGA does not "have the legal authority" to demand that the companies pull down mapping information, he added.

"Even if we wanted to do something about it, we couldn't," Burpee said.

Much of the satellite imagery used by such programs comes from international companies over which U.S. agencies have no jurisdiction, he said. The largest U.S.-based satellite imagery companies are Colorado-based Digital Globe and Virginia-based GeoEye. "The rest are all foreign," he said.

The most interesting bit is the quotation (which, remember, is from a public affairs officer of the United States Government) in the second paragraph. This seems to indicate that "for the support and defense of U.S. troops" is a modifier of the phrase "perfect world," meaning that it is one of the characteristics of such a "perfect world." Now, since only Victor Borge renders his punctuation marks as spoken text, we have to assume that the actual commas were supplied by Ms. Albanesius. So we are not absolutely sure whether the connotation that "the support and defense of U.S. troops" is an attribute of a perfect world can be attributed to her or to Mr. Burpee. If nothing else, it does reflect the sort of mind-set that has taken over the country in the post-9/11 age of "homeland security." Once again, when we read our texts, it always seems to be the little things that matter the most!