Reply: Good catch. I was aware of the installations in France, but not the other sites in Holland. That means the Dutch government has accomplished what the Chinese, Indian and Pakistani governments want so badly but cannot get Digital Globe or Google to agree to.

At first it appeared that the explanation might be that the Dutch images on Google Earth are provided by Aerodata International Surveys; perhaps the company was more receptive to secrecy demands by the Dutch government than Digital Globe. But then I checked the Aerodata web site, which in December 2007 announced the launch of a new web site aeroGRID.nl with aerial images of all of Holland, including Volkel Air Base (navigate a little to the east of the town to see the base). Within a few minutes I was able to purchase and download a relatively high-resolution image of the base.

This is a great example of silly secrecy. Has the Dutch government been able to persuade Aerodata to pixel out the basis or has Google Earth agreed to pixel out Aerodata’s image? It’s hard to imagine (although little surprises me when it comes to excessive secrecy) that the excuse is to hide the bases from other military adversaries, all of whom have their own satellites. Perhaps the excuse is that satellite images enable terrorist to target the bases; the terrorists who planned to attack Belgian Kleine Brogel Air Base a few years ago may have caused the Dutch authorities to overreact.

Whatever the reason, pixeling out the bases serves no real purpose – other than secrecy – because commercial high-resolution images of the same bases are readily available to anyone with a credit card. Moreover, although the bases are pixeled out on Google Earth, all other high-profile Dutch facilities – civilian airports, oil refineries, hospitals, power plants – are not, even though they are much more vulnerable to terrorist attacks and more vital to the Dutch society on a day-by-day basis than military facilities. HK