Join the hunt for Bin Laden!

Wired‘s Matthew Cole has discovered that Google Earth is the place to go for the inside scoop on where U.S. intelligence agencies think the al Qaeda leader might be hiding. Cole explains:

After Google recently updated its satellite images of parts of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, much of the region still looked blotchy — the kind of low resolution that persists in coverage of, say, upstate New York. But several small squares (they stand out as off-color patches from 680 miles up) suddenly became as detailed as the images of Manhattan. These sectors happen to be precisely where the US govern­ment has been hunting for bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Turns out, Google gets its images from many of the same satellite companies — DigitalGlobe, TerraMetrics, and others-that provide reconnaissance to US intelligence agencies. And when the CIA requests close-ups of the area around Peshawar in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, Google Earth reaps the benefits (although usually six to 18 months later). 

Of course, any shots of an emaciated, 6’6″ man dressed in white and sporting a long beard will be long out of date. But it’s fun to look around one of the wildest places on Earth nonetheless.