Google Earth outs secret US mission

Put this one in the whoops file. Google Earth, that amazing service that lets you see satellite images of just about any spot on Earth showed something they shouldn't have - namely US military Predator drone aircraft at a remote airfield in Pakistan.

The Predator is an unmanned aircraft, piloted remotely by an operator sitting back at its airfield (think of it as a remote control model airplane on steroids). Originally the Predator was designed to be a surveillance aircraft, something that could hover over a target in hostile territory for a few hours without putting the life of a pilot at risk. A few years ago though the military tried an experiment where they mounted a pair of missiles on a Predator, and thus a new weapon was born. For the past couple of years the Predators have been patrolling the skies above the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, occasionally taking out “high value” targets - suspected al-Qaeda members - on both sides of the border. The Pakistani public has been growing steadily more angry over these Predator airstrikes since they feel they are a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and because there has been “collateral damage” (a.k.a. dead civilians) in a number of the airstrikes.

And that's where the problems begin. The News, Pakistan's premier English-language newspaper, got a hold of an image from Google Earth taken in 2006 that shows what appears to be three Predators sitting on the tarmac at Shamsi Airfield, a remote airport near the Afghan border. Officially Pakistan says that the United States used Shamsi during the initial movement of US forces into Afghanistan following 9/11, but that the US had stopped using the airfield by 2006. Both sides deny that there are, or ever were, Predators at Shamsi.

But it puts Pakistan's already fragile government into a difficult position - the Pakistani government has repeatedly said the US does not fly Predator drones from their territory and on a number of occasions has demanded that the US stop Predator airstrikes along their side of the border, yet the pictures tell another story. How much fallout there is from this revelation remains to be seen.

Meanwhile in other airbase news, the government of Kyrgyzstan officially approved a bill ordering the United States to leave Manas airfield in their country, which is seen as a severe blow to US operations in Afghanistan since Manas was used as a base for US transport and refueling aircraft. The US government though continues to insist a deal can still be reached with the Kyrgyz about keeping the Air Force at Manas - I still can't decide if there's something secret in the works or if this is just a wild bout of wishful thinking on the part of the Pentagon.