Sudan Tanks Found By DIY Intelligence

You might remember this story from last September about how the Somali pirates got more than they bargained for when they snatched the Ukrainian-owned MV Faina only to discover its cargo included 33 Soviet-built T-72 tanks. In addition to worrying that those tanks could find their way into the hands of terrorists, the bigger question was where were they heading in the first place? The shipping company in Ukraine said they were bound for Kenya, but there was some thought that they actually were heading for South Sudan, a claim denied by the governments of Ukraine and Kenya. Now, thanks to some investigative work, we now know their ultimate destination was, in fact, South Sudan.

This is sparking more fears of (another) upcoming war in Sudan. In 2005, rebels in South Sudan signed a cease-fire agreement with the central government in Khartoum. One provision of the cease-fire was that a referendum on the South's independence would be held in 2011. It would seem that the leaders of South Sudan are not only expecting the vote to be for independence, but also that Khartoum will ignore the will of the people and try to keep the South as part of Sudan by force, and they're now working to build up their military to prepare for a re-launch of the civil war.

How we got this information itself is pretty interesting - it was the result of two staff members of the magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly pouring over some commercially available satellite imagery and tracking down the 33 tanks. Wired.com's Danger Room blog makes the point that with a little knowledge and a good bit of patience, public satellite image services, like Google Earth, are making it possible for anyone to become their own armchair intelligence agency.