Thread: Doctored bin Laden corpse photos go viral, global

Doctored bin Laden corpse photos go viral, global

By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 3:51 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO — The images are bloody, grotesque and convincing: Osama bin Laden lies dead, the left side of his head blasted away. But the pictures are fakes.

Doctored photos purporting to show bin Laden's corpse rocketed around the world on television, online via social media and in print almost as soon as his death was announced.

The pictures have spread without regard for their origin or whether the images are real. Meanwhile, scammers have piggybacked on the popularity of the images and spiked supposed online links with computer viruses.

Newsrooms and the public have been left in the tough spot of deciding what to believe when software has made doctoring photographs easier than ever. And the hunger for visual evidence of bin Laden's death may only grow now that President Barack Obama has said the government's photos will remain classified.

"I don't think society tolerates the invisible anymore," said Fred Ritchin, a professor of photography at New York University who has written about digital technology undermining trust in the veracity of photographs. "Everything has to be imaged."

The photos on the Internet did not come from the operation that killed bin Laden, according to a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the mission was classified.

Still, the appetite for images remains. In perhaps the most widely distributed photo, a bloodied bin Laden appears to be missing his left eye, and he is grimacing as if he died in pain. The White House says bin Laden was shot above his left eye.

Reuters reported on its photography blog that the mouth, ear and beard in the picture exactly matched a photo the news agency had snapped of bin Laden at a news conference in 1998. The upper half of the face appears to be from a different corpse.

Another photo released on the website liveleak.com shows bin Laden lying on his back with a wound over one eye as a soldier with an American flag insignia on his shoulder stands over the body. The photo is in green and black, as if taken with a night vision lens.

The website has since retracted the photo, which liveleak.com indicated was made with a photo of bin Laden digitally stitched into a still from the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down.

Another picture, by far the most gruesome, shows an extremely bloody face that resembles bin Laden with most of the skull missing and brain visible.

The spread of fake photos and the ease of making them have forced news organizations to be more vigilant than ever.

"The challenge here is these techniques are quite sophisticated," said Santiago Lyon, director of photography for The Associated Press. "A good Photoshop forger ... can make it very difficult at first glance to detect whether an image has been manipulated or not."

Experienced photo editors can often spot telltale inconsistencies such as shifts in color, contrast or light source that signal a fake, Lyon said.

For the most newsworthy photos that also raise suspicions, the AP has access to software that can analyze photos down to the level of the pixel, the basic building block of all digital images.

At least as important as the image itself is vetting the credibility of its source, Lyon said.

The AP did not escape from the lightning spread of doctored photos. The news service pulled from its wires a total of six photos - one of a Pakistani television broadcast, three of an Afghan television broadcast and two of a Bulgarian newspaper - that included the doctored images of bin Laden's corpse.

The AP made the decision not to accompany this story with any photos claiming to show a dead bin Laden to avoid any appearance of vouching for their authenticity.

The photos have caused headaches for more than just news organizations.

Viruses are being spread by links on Facebook pages, which have become home to a brisk trade in conspiracy theories.

While some politicians have criticized Obama's decision not to release the actual photos, visitors to a Facebook page called "Osama Bin Laden NOT DEAD" claim the doctored images themselves are evidence of a cover-up.

Some commenters on the page, which as of Wednesday had more than 1,300 fans, claimed without evidence that the U.S. government itself released the doctored photos. Others pointed out flaws in the photos they said had been faked as the Obama administration fabricated the news of bin Laden's death.

"The immediate assumption is that you can fabricate any image," Ritchin said. "The photograph itself doesn't have the legitimacy that it used to have in our society."
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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
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Follow Marcus Wohlsen at http://twitter.com/marcuswohlsen

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... al-global/

May 4, 2011 6:10 PM

Three senators may have been fooled by fake bin Laden pictures

Posted by Brian Montopoli, Nancy Cordes
Updated 6:48 p.m. Eastern Time

Three Republican senators who claimed to have seen images of Osama bin Laden after he was killed may have been duped.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts said Wednesday that he had been fooled by a fake photograph ostensibly showing an image of bin Laden post-mortem.

"I have seen the pictures. I've received the briefings. I've spoken to the operational leaders and I can tell you for a fact that he is dead," Brown said in an interview with WBZ Wednesday morning.

He repeated that point to other news outlets as part of his argument that the images should not be released.

"Listen, I've seen the picture," he told Fox-25 TV, according to the Boston Globe. "He's definitely dead. And if there's any conspiracy theories out there, you should put them to rest."

But Brown is now telling media outlets that "the photo that I saw and that a lot of other people saw is not authentic." His office would not say who showed the senator the fake photographs.

Two other Senate Republicans, Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, told reporters Wednesday morning they had viewed post-mortem images of bin Laden.

"I saw a photo of him deceased, obviously he had been wounded....when you see the picture it clearly has his features," said Ayotte.

But Ayotte released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying that she's not sure the picture was real.

"While I was shown a photo by another senator of what appeared to be a deceased Osama bin Laden, I do not know if it was authentic," she said. "However, I do believe a photo of the dead al Qaeda leader should be released. Although some may be upset by the image of someone who has been shot in the head, releasing a photo is important to put to rest any conspiracy theories that may arise around the world and to provide for closure."

And Chambliss - the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee - released an oblique statement Wednesday afternoon saying in part, "when I see the photos, I can make a judgment about the potential damage they may do."

"Apparently there was some misunderstanding about that," Chambliss told reporters as he left a vote, speaking of the image he had claimed to have seen. "I have no idea where it came from."

When asked how he, a high-ranking member of the Intelligence committee, could have fallen for photos that might not be authentic, Chambliss replied, "I was shown a photo by an individual that was represented to me as a picture of bin Laden after he's been shot that appeared to be an accurate photo. It was not an official photo." He said the person who shared the electronic photo with him was not an administration official.

The senators' initial claims seemed odd, since Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chair of the Intelligence Committee, insisted she had not been shown the closely guarded photos of bin Laden.

President Obama told CBS News Wednesday that he would not release the images, saying "It is important to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool."

Fake, photoshopped pictures of bin Laden have been appearing on the internet in the days since he was killed. It is not clear whether these are the pictures that the three senators - and perhaps others - believed were real.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-MI) who visited the CIA this week, says he has seen the authentic pictures. How does he describe them?

"If you've ever seen a crime scene photo, there's lot of those out there with gunshots -- gunshots to the head. It's clearly what it is -- face still recognizable, but there's clear damage from a gunshot wound," he said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... 03544.html

The photos have caused headaches for more than just news organizations.

Viruses are being spread by links on Facebook pages, which have become home to a brisk trade in conspiracy theories.

Everyone be careful if you get an email or link claiming to have real photos of dead Bin Laden. I've heard warnings that hackers have already started sending or posting these that contain viruses.

RELATED

Hackers, scammers exploiting bin Laden's death

Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 3:18 pm

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-236722.html

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

RELATED

Hackers, scammers exploiting bin Laden's death

Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 3:18 pm

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-236722.html

Thanks. I hadn't seen that article, just heard it on the radio.