According to a report from DailyTech, some experts inside the American intelligence community are starting to ask questions about Google Earth and other products built using commercially-available high resolution satellite images:

Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a small U.S. spy agency, believes that some satellite photos should be limited from the public for security purposes. Murrett wants the U.S. Government to restrict access to high-resolution imagery.

Iraqi insurgents have already been reported to be using printouts from Google Earth to wage war on Western forces in the region. And the companies that supply the images to Google and others are supposedly getting close to launching new satellites with even better cameras.

Murrett’s agency has already been tasked with helping the company set limits on the type and quality of images it allows into the public’s hands.

Sure… it’d be cool to be able to zoom into your next-door neighbors backyard to compare their new grill to yours. I’d love to be able to go to Google Earth to get recent, updated photos of the parking situation at the mall before heading up there like the ultra-secretive Hawkins on CBS’s Jericho.

But do we really need those things? Google Earth is fine as is and I don’t really see a need to bring it to the point were the federal government has to step in.

The fewer things they’re involved in, the better. Right?