Mere hours after England's Ministry of Defense said it would not ask Google to remove images of their Army's special forces' headquarters despite the "security breach," some images are gone—but others remain! Let's spy on secret stuff.

The inclusion of the British SAS's Herefordshire base in Google Street View first drew ire yesterday, with members of Parliament freaking out about terrorism and security, particularly "faces and number plates" and attacks on the base. Google rebuffed its British dissenters, saying they were only documenting public roads anyway, and today the Ministry of Defense came around. When we checked at noon, some of the Street View images were "no longer available," but others remained. (And looked, frankly, unimpressive. That tiny thing? Holds secrets?) The satellite image and SAS location pinpoint remain.


For comparison, here are successful Street View images of the Pentagon (looks like a shopping mall) and a post-Cheney Naval Observatory. (Biden lifted the Google Map ban on the VP residence. All you can see is trees and shrubbery, anyway.) [Guardian, DailyMail]