News Brief

A report in the Times of India Saturday night said that the terrorists who carried out the attacks on Mumbai did not do any advance reconnaissance of their targets – they simply used Google Earth to determine where the sites they intended to attack were located. The Times report said that the lone terrorist who was captured by Indian soldiers said that the gang, which reached India by boat, used the maps supplied by Google to figure out the routes they needed to take once in the city. The terrorist further admitted that the attack on the Chabad House had been planned in advance – along with the attacks on the Taj and Oberoi Hotels.

During the Second Lebanon War, Israeli officials said that Hizbullah had used Google Earth to target its missiles. Las August, Israel security officials arrested an Arab-Israeli medical student on charges of spying for Hizbullah. The student, Khaled Kashkoush, 29, was arrested when he returned to Israel from Germany, where he was recruited by Hizbullah and asked to pinpoint specific locations of residents of his home town of Kalansua, using maps of Google Earth.