For years, scientists studying everything from weather patterns to volcanic activity have been allowed limited access to images taken by spy satellites as they fly over the United States.

For years, scientists studying everything from weather patterns to volcanic activity have been allowed limited access to images taken by spy satellites as they fly over the United States. The Department of Homeland Security would like law-enforcement officials to see them as well, for purposes of monitoring disaster-recovery efforts and possibly even tracking terrorists, as an independent panel has recommended. Now that plans to do this are underway, liberals are howling about "domestic spying" and the like. In Congress, some Democrats are asking questions--and it's true that DHS didn't adequately inform them of its intentions, as DHS secretary Michael Chertoff has publicly acknowledged. Yet civil libertarians should rest easy. The capabilities of the satellites in question are much closer to those of Google Earth than to anything imagined by the scriptwriters of 24. The satellites won't threaten anyone's personal privacy, and they may yet make a small contribution to our national security.