You're going to have a tough time justifying shooting down a commercial Quickbird satellite. Kind of a bad precedent.

DigitalGlobe investors investors include ITT Industries, Inc., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Telespazio S.p.A./Eurimage Investment.

From their web site FAQ:

How does DigitalGlobe handle requests for imagery of sensitive areas, such as military bases, or images that could potentially threaten U.S. national security?

- Since DigitalGlobe is a commercial company and has adopted an open skies policy as a way of doing business, it makes imagery available to markets that have practical applications. However, in the case of a threat to national security, DigitalGlobe will comply with any U.S. Government regulations and restrict access to imagery as required.

If this is true, then our military must not have seriously objected to the publication of the base pictures. More backing for the theory that we are deliberately leaking preparations to rattle our swords?