Is Google Involved With Break Through Surveillance Capability?

Maybe I've been reading too many Robert Ludlum novels this Summer, but tell me if this doesn't make you think.

Last night Bob Woodward on 60 Minutes tells us that the success of the surge in Iraq was turned by a powerful new surveillance technology.

"This is very sensitive and very top secret, but there are secret operational capabilities that have been developed by the military to locate, target, and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, insurgent leaders, renegade militia leaders. That is one of the true breakthroughs," Woodward told Pelley. "From what I know about it, it's one of those things that go back to any war, World War I, World War II, the role of the tank, and the airplane. And it is the stuff of which military novels are written," Woodward said. "If you were an al Qaeda leader or part of the insurgency in Iraq, or one of these renegade militias, and you knew about what they were able to do, you'd get your ass outta town."

(He starts talking about it at 8:00 minutes into the video)
Use the scroll to fast forward if you want to.

That kind of statement made me start thinking what it could possibly be? I think, what is the most powerful surveillance tool I know of? Google Earth. On Saturday I read that Google had launched it's own satellite and thought "wow that's power". Then I start remembering things I've read recently that fill in some blanks.

• U.S. general laments Google Earth capability
• Google execs take off with landing privileges at Moffett Field
• Google leases acreage at Moffett for complex
• Google Gets Use of Land and 767 Runway For 40 Years
• Google Satellite Now Watching You From 423 Miles Up

What do you bet the military now has a real-time Google Earth?

While action movies show the government with kewl toyz, reality was that they probably didn't have them. What do bet in the last year that changed?

I guess if I get a knock at the door, then I know I'm right ...