Via this interesting MSNBC article on Thetus — a startup that aims to become the Google of non-text data and which just received a cash infusion from a CIA-funded venture capital firm — I learned that Keyhole Corp. also received CIA funding in order to develop what is now Google Earth. I wonder what Hevesi thinks of that! I love it.

All this might set the conspiracy theorists’ tongues wagging in some places as to what the purpose of Google Earth is — after all, democratising access to spatial data globally undermines the most secretive governments most. But I think the proper message to take from this is that the CIA is becoming smarter by incubating and harnessing innovation out in the free markets, rather than always trying to develop homebrewed solutions.

(It turns out, now that I look for it, that the Wall Street Journal wrote about this a few weeks ago.)

It’s the turn of New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi to jump aboard Google-Earth-aids-terrorists bandwagon, reports the New York Post. In a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Hevesi says he was alerted by Queens assemblyman Michael Gianaris, whose discovery of Google Earth was previously blogged here.

Hevesi feels the need to mention that he is the sole trustee of the NY state pension fund, and that it has $25 million invested in Google stock.

From the article:

Hevesi told The Post, “Since 9/11, we have to be much more security conscious . . . I have asked Google to make sure that making satellite pictures available has been vetted by the appropriate government agencies.”

Which is weird, because in the letter to Schmidt he wrote that:

“I understand that you have contacted the Department of Defense to inquire about any national security issues that could arise from the use of this product.”

What we’ve got here is a bunch of New York politicians who can’t get their way, so they begin throwing around the idea that they could sell their shares as a threat. What a clever idea. Imagine if it worked. All South Korea or Thailand would have to do is buy Google shares through intermediaries, then threaten to dump them if Earth doesn’t obscure a proffered list of sites.