Mastodawn

AFP/Reuters:

"...Satellite imaging company Planet Labs has said it will indefinitely withhold visuals of Iran and the ⁠region of conflict in the Middle East to comply with a request from United States President Donald Trump’s administration.

The US company announced the decision in an email to customers on Saturday, with news agencies quoting it as saying the government had asked satellite imagery providers ⁠to impose an “indefinite withhold of imagery”...."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/5/us-satellite-firm-planet-labs-announces-blackout-on-war-on-iran-images

#RemoteImaging #satellites #war #IranWar #Iran #PlanetLabs

US satellite firm Planet Labs announces blackout on war on Iran images

Company says move amid US-Israel war on Iran comes after a request from the US government.

Al Jazeera

AI6YR Ben 1h ago

*** Reading between the lines, the US doesn't want other people (and particularly, journalists), to have access to any "ground truth". i.e. satellite image of bombed out schools, US aircraft, possible US incursions into Iran (i.e. setting up at a remote abandoned airbase), etc. etc. -- or anything that might show casualties or damage to civilians. Or, if they drop a nuke, the aftermath.

AI6YR Ben 1h ago

For example, the Trump Regime is currently claiming the US blew up its own aircraft because they were "bogged down" in sand.

The Iranian Regime is distributing video showing US planes which look to be on solid ground/either a dirt road or hardpack or that abandoned air base.

Iran is claiming the rescue failed.

The US is claiming the rescue succeeded, but stories ALSO include a story of the CIA seeding stories in Iran of the rescue succeeding to try to convince the Iranians to stop looking.

Unclear who, if anyone, to believe in this whole matter. It's all propaganda, all the time, and US/western media is "SO-and-so says" and "So-and-so also says", which is useless... i.e. no confirmation of anything.

#Uspol #journalism #Iran #Iranwar

Dave Spector 1h ago

@ai6yr bogged down in sand, you say. Huh. Who would have guessed?

Didn’t Jimmy Carter’s rescue attempt of the American hostages in 1979 during the Iran Hostage Crisis suffer a similar problem?

If only Trump had listened to, you know, domain experts…

Pusher of Pixels 12m ago

@ai6yr I'd hope we'll see non-US imagery from Europe or elsewhere?

Bryan Haskin 1h ago

@ai6yr was thinking about this a little bit. A little worried he might drop a nuke after the 48 hours to try and get them to surrender. I don't think it will be on a city or anything, but likely as a threat. I hope that isn't the case.

AI6YR Ben 1h ago

@bhhaskin The normal(ish) decision making process that you'd think leaders make aren't being followed, just random synapse firings... so nuke is not out of the question, for sure. No consultation with experts, no carefully weighed options, just whatever pops out of the egotistical maniacal neurons at the moment.

Bryan Haskin 55m ago

@ai6yr and it seems like he is itching for it.

AI6YR Ben 50m ago

@bhhaskin Serious executive control issues in the brain. What his voters admired "he has no filter!" "he does anything he wants!" "he doesn't ask for permission!" "he grabs/takes/steals whatever he wants" -- I think it is a symptom of a shrunken prefrontal cortex (ie impulsive behavior control). So, a normal person, sitting at a meeting, uses that part of the brain to say: "Hey, this is am important meeting, I don't need to talk about Sharpies for 10 minutes", but his is damaged, so he talks about Sharpies because of the impulse control isn't there. Same with all the rest. Very undesirable in the leader of what arguably is the most powerful nation in the world, with a lot of nuclear weapons et al.

@ai6yr wow the US is losing that badly?

@driusan @ai6yr

Yep.

All of a sudden a bunch of people showed up back in the US with just the clothes on their backs.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/03/nx-s1-5770491/evacuation-bahrain-norfolk-troops

T. J. Bombadil 1h ago

@driusan If by “losing” you mean “resorting to war crimes” then yes.

@ai6yr I'm very tempted right now to rig up a meme of Trump doing his "Hitler salute but not" that he likes to do with the "obey" meme style or something.

But I also can't stand looking at his face and get sick from the sight of it.

Desert Square Gardener 1h ago

@ai6yr
Trump's Vietnam

@ai6yr head of Bellingcat was posting about that yesterday. Still available from Chinese satellite companies

@ai6yr https://bsky.app/profile/eliothiggins.bsky.social/post/3miotfqqqqs2j

Oh, they boosted this quote post of a quote post that commented about it still being available. https://bsky.app/profile/yoruk.bsky.social/post/3mip6u5vrcc2q

Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social)

Just had this from Planet Labs, the US government have asked satellite imagery providers for "voluntarily" restrictions on access to satellite imagery. Given a lot of them provide satellite imagery to the USG we can probably guess the outcome of not acquiescing to that request.

Bluesky Social

3Jane Tessier Ashpool 1h ago

@ai6yr so nobody can see what’s up. Cool. WTF. Don’t even need a Ministry of Truth, just power and money.

@ai6yr The current US regime should be bombed back to the stone age.

Regression To The Meme 33m ago

@ai6yr Easier to lie. 😏