Ned's Positive Futures Sharebook 

My hope is that someday soon, I can return to Lebenon and Israel and walk with my friends -- all together -- without fear. With all the spin given by each player in this no-win drama, it's a wonder that anyone can keep to their feet or a straight face.

Spy movie stuff? No. Today's technology can and does make it possible. See for yourself in story and photo from CQ. Who's CQ? Why is the Congressional Quarterly. Not a bad source. Read on and think who's right - the UN Secretary General or the Israeli Defence Force's public relations officer. Source: CQ.com. ,http://public.cq.com/public/20060721_homeland.html>
Jeff Stein, National Security Editor, CQ Staff -- CQ HOMELAND SECURITY – SPYTALK July 22, 2006 – 12:29 a.m. The White House Has Its Reasons for Tip-Toeing Past Iran’s Role in Lebanon
Excerpt from the article: “Lots of photographs exist” of the Iranian supply operations, Reynolds says. The U.N. observers “are in close proximity to Hezbollah, and the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] are well aware of the location of rockets.”

“The Israelis are very hesitant to reveal photographic electro-optical evidence from Mt. Hermon,” Reynolds says, “because it would reveal to the Syrians some Israeli [surveillance] capabilities and the Syrians would then use that knowledge to counter them.”

Washington, Reynolds says, resists “revealing them for the same reason”— so as not to disclose the quality of its technical collection capabilities, which include satellites and ground-station intercepts of Iranian and Syrian electronic communications.

But pretty good pictures of the Hezbollah positions are available to anybody with a laptop, via GoogleEarth.com.

Reynolds even e-mailed me a couple of photos of the Lebanon-Israel-Syria border region that he had downloaded from GoogleEarth and marked up around the Hezbollah sites.