OBL audio: See voice morphing tech. 1999 WaPo article!!!

[Autumn Colors]

Just some food for thought here since just about everyone here knows that bin Laden tapes have this uncanny ability to surface at very opportune times for the Bush administration.

I give you a Washington Post article from 1999 (yup, pre 9/11) that talks about voice morphing (EXACT REPLICATION AND MANIPULATION OF ANY VOICE!) that was developed at Los Alamos.

This might explain why lately there are only AUDIO tapes of him, but no VIDEO.

"When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing"
by William M. Arkin, Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, Feb. 1, 1999

"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United States government." So begins a statement being delivered by Gen. Carl W. Steiner, former Commander-in-chief, U.S. Special Operations Command. At least the voice sounds amazingly like him. But it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing" technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

By taking just a 10-minute digital recording of Steiner's voice, scientist George Papcun is able, in near real time, to clone speech patterns and develop an accurate facsimile. Steiner was so impressed, he asked for a copy of the tape.

* snip *

Digital morphing — voice, video, and photo — has come of age, available for use in psychological operations. PSYOPS, as the military calls it, seek to exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments, militaries and populations to pursue national and battlefield objectives.

To some, PSYOPS is a backwater military discipline of leaflet dropping and radio propaganda. To a growing group of information war technologists, it is the nexus of fantasy and reality. Being able to manufacture convincing audio or video, they say, might be the difference in a successful military operation or coup.

To read more, original article is located here: http://www.public-action.com/911/voice-simulation/

EDIT:
Actually, here's the correct link to the article on the Washington Post site
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin020199.htm

[toymachines]

1. I no longer trust audio or video

Especially in the hands of the Bushites

[FreedomAngel82]

14. Which BinLadin is this?

Is he the fat or skinny nose one?

[malaise]

23. The English Bin Laden

He is sending a coded message in English to his followers who don't speak the language:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: This is a sick joke.

sp.

[EVDebs]

18. OBL is now reading Karl Rove's 'Talking Points'.....

If my purchase of underware at Wal-Mart can be tracked but OBL's kidney dialysis equipment can't be tracked into the Hindu Kush Mts. between Pakistan and Afganistan...you know something's rotten in Denmark or the USA.

Total Surveillance
http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2005/12/albrecht.h ...

Couple this insidious technology with purposely erroneous background checks

Who is checking the background checkers?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p13s02-wmgn.html

They've offshored, outsourced, and privatized TIA. Now all they have to do is fire you for being 'of the wrong political party' and put false information in your background data...and voila ! You've just created the most insidious terror project in the US ever.

Here at home Ollie North's 'suspend the Constitution' project Rex84/OperationGardenPlot/OperationCableSplicer is taking shape and the R's are just now realizing they can't arrest and detain HALF of the US population as they'd planned. Oh darn. Dems are now becoming unhappy campers and the whole plan's taken a nosedive into the toilet.

And all the R's can do is have OBL pop-ups and pretend they're 'saving' us from terror, when in actuality they're trashing the Constitution and looting the treasury. Too bad OBL didn't mention any of that while monitoring the internet !

[Gman]

2. An extremely plausible explanation for this new tape

The alleged OBL says entirely too many of the right things to benefit Bush just as happened the Friday before the 04 November election.

[leveymg]

4. UBL's "voice from the grave" may not even be entirely domestic

There are others out there besides Karl Rove who thought they had a lot at stake in the last election.

Bet this comes out in the wash, eventually. The technology of voice recognition is going to improve to the point where existing digital audio morphs are readily identified, along with the signature of the software that produces them.

[Autumn Colors]

5. Anyone think that sending this WaPo link to MSM NOW ....

might actually make people like Olbermann question the timing and content of this new tape in connection with this sort of technology created for propaganda type purposes....

Maybe not MSM, but Malloy and others who could get the info out there so other people besides those of us on DU start questioning the source of these tapes?

[leveymg]

7. Ya, I think it's interesting enough to send to Olbermann/Malloy

In itself, it proves nothing other than the Gov't seems to have this capability. Bear in mind, that's only a first step on a long, steep road towards where you seem to want to go with this.

[ooglymoogly]

28. cafferty mentioned that it was strange that

every time the admin was in trouble a tape from osama surfaced and he said it every time his segment came on. so send one to him too.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Yep

All the talking points. I have somewhere on a data disc a video from ABC and they're showing someone who is being turned into the Saudi government and they call this person by some Arabic name and claim it's a "great victory in the war on terror." If you look at the video, the person hides their face, what you can see you can tell it looks like BinLadin. The person can't walk for whatever reason and is pushed in a wheelchair and when the camera gets close on this person he hides his nose which I thought was quite strange.

[leveymg]

3. Hmm. General Steiner may have just been a bit ahead of the game

"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United States government." . . . Being able to manufacture convincing audio or video, they say, might be the difference in a successful military operation or coup.

[Autumn Colors]

6. No kidding ...

I actually first heard about this article in a MIHOP 9/11 documentary where it's said that some of the transcripts of the cellphone calls placed to "family" were very odd ... like a guy calling immediate family and identifying himself by his full name, not just his first name. It was suggested that the cellphone calls from the hijacked flights were faked. Not sure if I'll stretch my imagination that far... but faking the OBL tapes (esp with no video) ... I have no problem believing that.

[TomClash]

8. Whether it is him or not

his offer of a "truce" in the Iraq War is interesting. Whether you believe AQ is really BFEE redux or not, this fits the AQ/OBL MO of giving a last chance warning before an attack. This happened before the Embassy, USS Cole, 9/11, London and Madrid bombings.

So I would rate the probability of an attempted attack in the US as quite high.

[leveymg]

24. In that case, they should cancel any attack "simulations" planned

Those also featured in the 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings.

[Marleyb]

9. K&R

[babylonsister]

10. Kick and nominate for total plausibility! nt

[bleever]

11. I'm no coincidence theorist.

This makes more sense than the uncanny pattern of OBL podcasting whenever * needs a boost.

[FogerRox]

12. aLot more sense.

[tinrobot]

13. Makes sense to me.

Audio is totally easy to rig and this technology has been around for quite a while.

Video is much more difficult, which is the reason we don't see video. Funny how OBL made all sorts of videos in the year after 9/11, but now only does audio.

Funny, indeed.

[neoblues]

16. They have 3D Talking Dummies now too...

For example, George W. Bush. Though they're still working on the limited and buggy language software.

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. GEE! Why would we need THAT technology?

:eyes: Pre-911? They have everything covered. They planned for everything. Even fake terrorist voices.:(

[Liberty Belle]

19. Kick!

[Kablooie]

20. Boy, what a great tool for the Bushies!

Anytime they want they can have OBL say anything they want. Just send the tape to Al Jazeera and bingo! Instant threat! Wonderful!

At the press briefing yesterday someone said that it seemed odd that Bush didn't know about the tape before the broadcast. Scotty said it wasn't odd at all. Entirely appropriate for * to hear it the same time everyone else did. --- Uh huh.

He wasn't bothered because he helped set the whole damn thing up!

Damn they are sharp. I'm afraid folks that we are doomed. Allah is giving all the breaks to the enemy.

[zippy890]

21. is it time to

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: ?

[eridani]

22. So, who might have actual Al Jazeerah contacts?

Dahr Jamail? Robert Fisk? Can't these guys snag a copy of the tape and look for the software signatures that betray voice synthesis?

[leveymg]

25. My guess is that commercial lab tests have not been conclusive

The burden of proof demanded by the MSM on evidence of Gov't wrongdoing in national security matters is probably higher than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard.

Can't really blame them after what's happened to Rather and others.

[eridani]

29. They wouldn't be making a claim about what their data means--

--just reporting it. As in saying "Our results show or (or do not show) evidence of voice morphing." If the results are ambiguous, they should say that. You know, act like scientists or something. When you publish in a scientific journal, you expect people to rip you a new one if necessary.

As a member of the informed public, I refuse to accept any statements about the authenticity of any video or audio that has not been analyzed for traces of manipulation and the results reported along with the original data.

[MsLeopard]

26. And then there's this

I saw this on another thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x191533

It's a post on a gov't website from someone in Iraq -
*snip*
19 Jan 2005, 13:59 PST
Dear DEA Watch:

Rec'd ur inq but sorry that I cannot apologize for alerting a heads-up on the so-called Osama tape broadcast today. We didn't get the word from the other side. When a tape is given to al-Jezeera from Osama or his people we are the first to know about it. This tape was not provided directly to al-Jezeera but through a government low-runger. If this was a real Osama tape his people would have used the regular procedure. If you want to know more where this particular tape originated from you'll have to ask the WH and Porter Goss. Additionally, all of the other indicators that normally accompany an Osama tape are non-existent. C'mon, wake up and smell the coffee... didn't you find it curious that CIA authenticated this "tape" so quickly... and that there was no video??? Authentic audio tapes can be faked in any multi-million dollar lab, such as those that exist in Langely. Remember your LE training, when a crime is committed who is the most likely beneficiary of the profits?
~~~~~~~~~~
It's such a shame we have no real media to bring this information to light....

[sundancekid]

27. and all without changing alert colors ... so much fakery, so little time

LET THE CITIZEN REVOLT BEGIN ... I WANT MY DEMOCRACY BACK

unfortunately, more MIHOP is the exact FIRST thing that came to my mind at BOTH of the 2 latest Osama Bin Forgotten "audio tapes" ... the busheviks' credibility is GONE ... it also appears that most of America did another ho-hum yesterday too; could their pharisaic hubris have (at last) jumped the shark?