Censoring Google Earth

CNN
A lawmaker from San Diego, Joel Anderson, is pushing for a California law that limits how much detail mapping tools are allowed to show. The argument is that it compromises national security to have the position of streets and buildings available for all to see on the internet. Anderson proposes that these images should not be shown in photographic detail and should instead be blurred out. He says that in the old days, you couldn't "count the number of bricks in a building, or see the elevator shafts." His main concern is that terrorists could use these details to plan their attacks.

While I agree that this amount of detail can be used for nefarious ends (such as robbing the Bellagio vault), I'm not sure how this law is supposed to help prevent terrorism. It's not like maps of the United States are a national secret or anything; images of our states and cities are distributed all over the world, with additional details about positions of buildings available on various websites. It would only be a matter of time before terrorists got their hands on an accurate map of where they want to attack. By blurring images shown on internet mapping tools, we're only making it so that terrorists have to do a little more research. ("Ahah! If you want to bomb that synagogue, you're going to have to search its address first! And then use mapquest to get directions to get there! I've stalled you for an extra 3 minutes!") I guess Anderson wants to prevent spur-of-the-moment terrorist attacks?

I understand that public safety is a major issue, and that there are real terrorist threats out there, but blurring mapping tools is not a major preventive measure.

-Gloria Law