RUSSIAN MAPPING SERVICE ACCIDENTALLY REVEALS LOCATIONS OF ISRAELI AND TURKISH ‘SECRET’ MILITARY FACILITIES

Source: fas.org

Blurring of satellite images by Russian mapping service Yandex maps reveals ‘secret’ military facilities, Matt Korda a Research Associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, discovered.

According to Korda, Google Earth also occasionally applies the blurring at the request of governments, who would wish to keep their facilities secret.

“France, for example, has asked Google to obscure all imagery of its prisons after a French gangster successfully conducted a Hollywood-inspired jailbreak involving drones, smoke bombs, and a stolen helicopter(!)—and Google has agreed to comply by the end of 2018.”

Yandex maps is Russia’s leading mapping service, and it evidently also agreed to selectively blur out specific sites; however, it has done that only for Israel and Turkey. The areas range from large complexes, like airfields and arms and munition warehouses, to small inconspicuous buildings in city blocks.

According to the report, blurring out specific sites is unusual, it is normal for satellite imagery companies to downgrade the resolution on certain sets of imagery before releasing them to platforms like Yandex and Google Earth. An example is given, of how downtown Toronto is always in very high resolution and viewers can make out very specific details, while downtown Jerusalem is always much, much blurrier.

Source: fas.org

That is because, “a 1997 US law known as the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment (KBA) prohibits US companies from publishing satellite imagery of Israel at a Ground Sampling Distance lower than what is commercially available.”

Foreign mapping services don’t need to adhere to KBA, but they still do. Mostly, because KBA is institutionalized. But, probably also because Russian companies don’t want to worsen Russia’s relationship with Israel.

“However, Yandex has taken a step well beyond simply downgrading its Israeli imagery, as is typical for most mapping services. Yandex itself—or perhaps its imagery provider ScanEx—has blurred out specific military installations in their entirety. Interestingly, it has done the same to Turkey, a country that benefits from no special standards and is therefore almost always shown in very high resolution.”

Source: fas.org

According to Korda, the blurring is almost definitely the result of requests from both Israel and Turkey. However, this blurring had the adverse effect of revealing the location and exact perimeter of every significant military facility within both countries.

The blurred sites can be compared to un-blurred positions on Google Earth to find the undisclosed facilities.

Matt Korda, after doing exactly that, presented a list of “several intriguing points of consideration:”

Included in the list of Yandex’s blurred sites are at least two NATO facilities: Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) in Izmir, and Incirlik Air Base, which hosts the largest contingent of US B61 nuclear gravity bombs at any single NATO base.

Source: fas.org

No Russian facilities have been blurred—including its nuclear facilities, air bases, launch sites, or foreign military bases.
Although none of Russia’s permanent military installations in Syria have been blurred, almost the entirety of Syria is depicted in extremely low resolution, making it nearly impossible to utilize Yandex for analyses of Syrian imagery. By contrast, both Crimea and the entire region of Donbass are visible at very high resolutions, so this blurring standard applies only selectively to Russia’s foreign operations.
All four Israeli Patriot batteries that were identified via radar interference earlier were blurred out, confirming that the sites, in fact, have a military function.

Thus, having complied to the requests by Israel and Turkey, Yandex unwillingly revealed the sensitive sites’ locations, perimeters, and possibly potential functions.

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specif

ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Search This Blog