Spanish MP's photo used for Osama Bin Laden poster

[bananas]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8463657.stm

Page last updated at 21:20 GMT, Saturday, 16 January 2010

Spanish MP's photo used for Osama Bin Laden poster

From left: Osama Bin Laden (1998); Photo-fit of Osama Bin Laden, aged 52; Gaspar Llamazares (Izquierda Unida)
A photo of Bin Laden from 1998 (left) was 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 FBI admitted a forensic artist had obtained certain facial features "from a photograph he found on the internet".

The digitally-altered photos of the al-Qaeda leader, showing how he might look now, aged 52, were published on the state department's Rewards for Justice website 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.

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Via reddit.com: Photoshop Disaster (featuring FBI) (news.bbc.co.uk)

[ima_sinnic]

1. they only had to go to the nearest medical school for a human skull (nt)

[Ghost Dog]

2. I posted a question about this here: Any thoughts?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4228047#4228749

[izquierdista]

3. I think you need to dye your hair

Get rid of the gray, and the facial features will stand out more. The pattern of graying is what was lifted in the photo and that is what is distinctive about the two photos.

[Ghost Dog]

4. In fact my hair is much whiter, but my point is this false image is prejudicial,

potentially, to many people.

(I've no intention of dyeing my hair for this or any other reason - and it only looks as neat as in the entirely fictitious image on the relatively rare occasions I get round to getting it cut).

My point is, to repeat: Since this is, I repeat, a false, made-up image of a (possibly also highly-falsified, but that's another issue) wanted man that has been distributed to 'security forces' around the world that could lead to serious consequences for many innocent people, it does cross one's mind that there could be grounds here for a large class-action suit in the USA against the FBI, the Homeland Security apparatus and the US Government in general.

[izquierdista]

5. They are doing with faces what they did with names

Putting them on watch lists so that TSA dictators can detain anyone for any reason.