Since I'm not a conspiracy theorist, these pictures are wasted on me.

The below satellite pictures are from maps.google.com. I was exploring the Washington DC area in anticipation of a trip there later in the Summer and I noticed some strange aspects to the sat images. Sometimes they are deliberately blurred or distorted. I can see the reasons for this in some cases, but others are just odd. I can see a whole hobby springing-up: Spot the blurred-out sections on Google satellite images. I found the Capitol first, then I looked to see about the White House and Pentagon (which is not distorted). I found the Observatory Circle by accident. I was just exploring routes into and out of DC. Note: You can click on any of the images and you will get a full screen, higher resolution image.

Here is an unblurry picture of the Vice President's Residence from the Vice President's website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/life/vpresidence.html 

Is this a crop circle in the middle of Washington DC? No. It is Observatory Circle and where the residence of the Vice President is. Why blurry? I think I can make a guess. Please note: For the above picture (and all the others on this site) you can get a bigger and more detailed picture by clicking on the small picture presented here.

Do you see something odd about the roofs of the White House and the bldgs to either side? I do. Notice how all the other structures have complicated roofs? Lots of air conditioners and vents and stuff like that. The White house looks strangely uniform. Here the subtrafuge is understandable. No need for anyone out there to see the Patriot battery on the roof of the West wing!

The resolution is fairly low here, but clearly the US Capitol grounds and some nearby bldgs are blurred. It is not as if it is hard to find nor unknown how it looks, so why the cloak and dagger?