Spanish MP's photo 'used for Bin Laden poster'

MontyB

MontyB

All-Blacks Supporter
Well this is a little bizarre and probably going to cost some one a pretty penny in compensation...

Spanish MP's photo 'used for Bin Laden poster'


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A photo of Bin Laden from 1998 (left) was apparently digitally altered using elements from an image of Gaspar Llamazares (right)


A Spanish politician has said he was shocked to find out the FBI had used his photo for a digitally-altered image showing how Osama Bin Laden might look.
Gaspar Llamazares said he would no longer feel safe travelling to the US after his hair and parts of his face appeared on a most-wanted poster.
He said the use of a real person for the mocked-up image was "shameless".
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo said an FBI spokesman had admitted the agency had taken a picture from Google Images.
The digitally-altered photos of the al-Qaeda leader, showing how he might look now, aged 52, were issued by the US state department on Friday.
Officials said they had adapted a 1998 file image to take account of a decade's worth of ageing, and possible changes to facial hair.
'Low level' intelligence
Mr Llamazares, 52, the former leader of the United Left coalition in parliament, said he could not believe it when he was first told about the similarity between himself and the new photo-fit of Bin Laden.
He said he soon realised that his forehead, hair and jaw-line had been "cut and pasted" from an old campaign photograph.
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Bin Laden's safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is
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Gaspar Llamazares
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"I was surprised and angered because it's the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist," he told a news conference.
"It's almost like out of a comedy if it didn't deal with matters as serious as Bin Laden and citizens' security."
The FBI claimed to have used "cutting edge" technology, but Mr Llamazares said it showed the "low level" of US intelligence services and could cause problems if he was wrongly identified as the Saudi.
"Bin Laden's safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is," he said, adding that he was considering taking legal action.
El Mundo quoted FBI spokesman Ken Hoffman as saying a technician "was not satisfied" with the hair features offered by the FBI's software programme and instead used part of a photo of Mr Llamazares posted on the internet.
"The technician had no idea whose image he had found and no dark motive for using it," he told the newspaper.
The FBI did not respond immediately when asked for comment on Saturday, requesting that questions be sent to it by e-mail.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8463657.stm

Published: 2010/01/16 19:03:30 GMT

© BBC MMX
 
Perhaps I'm blind, but I reckon the "artist" stuffed it up, as the bloke in the middle looks little like either of the originals. The eyes and lips are a really poor match, the nose is too long...... In fact the only thing they got right was Llamazares' hair style which is of no importance.

No wonder they can't find him.
 
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It is an odd picture but I am still not sure I would be enthusiastic about my image being used as a Bin Laden look alike.
 
Very true, but I guess that had we never been told, we never would have picked either of them from the resulting image so they're both pretty safe, unless of course we're looking for the hairstyle and colour in which case Llamazares is in deep cack.

Perhaps it's just me?
 
senojekips said:
Perhaps I'm blind, but I reckon the "artist" stuffed it up, as the bloke in the middle looks little like either of the originals. The eyes and lips are a really poor match, the nose is too long...... In fact the only thing they got right was Llamazares' hair style which is of no importance.

No wonder they can't find him.
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Lets see:

The fact that they used the hairline (and the whole forehead, actually) tells us some stuff about the multi millions expensive agency, actually various things:

1. They do not know to use (or do not have the time or the intention to) aging software (which is out there for public use) that does a fairly good job in general when you give it a nice front shot like the one of Bin Laden.

2. They did not use Llamazares for the first time with Bin Laden (secretly, we here all now all call the poor ex-socialist leader "Bin Llamazares" which does not do him right as he is a rather well educated and humanism based thinker, but which will surely stick to the end of his days), but also a year ago CIA did the same already with Lybian Terrorist Atiyah Abd al-Rahman (including eyebrow & eyes this time, see pics below).

If that happened to you, and you happened to be a leader of a left republican (= against a King, in Spanish Monarchy) party, would you believe in co-incidence?

Of hundreds of thousands of male mediterranean type portraits on google two different US agencies use part of your face twice to depict two different terrorists?

Come on, invent a better story, Hollywood is not gone give you a dime for that script...!

Actually, this smells like having been done deliberately and with a reason...

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3. The FBI and other US security forces have no clue what Bin Laden and the other guy look like today. They are guessing and speculating, probably to seem (pro)active?

One more indicator: FBI announced today that they have withdrawn (or will withdraw, do not recall exactly atm) *all* robot (?) created pictures of suspected terrorists "to double check whether they match persons of public interest" (which, for me as ex- and newly again journo, reads "..because we suspect they might match various persons of public interest but we are not going to give you a chance to find out which ones...")

In whose hands is our security, actually? Seriously?

Rattler
 
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I have no interest whatsoever in second guessing the possible hidden agendas of the CIA. That is altogether too far into the realms of fantasy for me. If I wanted experiences like that I would have tried LSD years ago.

I merely commented that they made a shite of a job of making a composite image. One that really looked nothing like the person it was taken from (with the exception of the hair) nor did it look particularly like the face of Bin laden in my opinion.

The eyes are the wrong shape and slightly too close together, the nose is too long, the top lip too narrow (low), the mouth is straight whereas Bin Ladens has a twist and the lips are too full. As for faces, there's not much left that you can use.

I would say Bin Laden is as safe as houses as far as being recognised from the image in question.

I really wonder how these agencies work, and would not be happy with the way my money was being spent if I were a US taxpayer, if this is an example of their work.
 
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In all three photos the guy looks guilty. Just shoot them all. On the digtial picture, use digital bullets.
 
Not me.
Says something about the capabilities of the "intelligence" community.
Not really a laughing matter.
One day you may be called into walk into a combat zone briefed with material from their "intel."
 
the_13th_redneck said:
Not me.
Says something about the capabilities of the "intelligence" community.
Not really a laughing matter.
One day you may be called into walk into a combat zone briefed with material from their "intel."
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Now that would be a real cause for concern.

It would be hilarious if it were not so damned serious.:?
 
senojekips said:
Now that would be a real cause for concern.

It would be hilarious if it were not so damned serious.:?
Click to expand...

And it is, for Mr. Llamazares, at least, he stated: "Well Bin Laden´s life is not under threat, but mine now is". Not to be taken too seriously (he was laughing his ass off when he told it), but there is a base for concern indeed (remember the US actor that did a movie about an IRA terrorist and got beaten up in the street in NY along the line: "How can you even dare to show your face here?"... Reality today is very often visual and "news" reality).

Spanish Press (right wing, contra Llamazares) today in the crude translation Google is serving us - see the comments - had it like that, a great display of democratic principles and lack of self-censorship when it counts: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elmundo.es%2Felmundo%2F2010%2F01%2F18%2Fespana%2F1263825603.html&sl=es&tl=en

There was a nice cartoon out today:

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The caption goes like this: The "FBI" is going along a random "kindergarden" sing-song phrase ("Pito, pito, gor-go-rito...") to select a picture off the wall (all pics representing current Spanish politicians), while the guy in the back (US government) says: "Now, we already know that Llamazares is Bin Laden, let´s go and pick out next what the assasin of Kennedy looks like..."!

The good news: They had to ask for the telephone number of Llamazares to State in order to apologize, this probably means they did not have Llamazares on their "Most Wanted" terrorist/NoFLy list (or do they not know to record tel numbers from the net? Where is the NSA when you need them?)...

So, this is where US tax payers money goes when we are talking terrorism? Holy Virgin!

Rattler
 
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