mrmcdonaldduck
January 18th, 2010, 03:01 AM
A SPANISH politician is horrified his facial features were used by the FBI to create an age-enhanced image of Osama bin Laden and has questioned the agency's credibility.
The US government yesterday withdrew the image after admitting it was partly based on a photo of Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares found on Google.
The image of the al-Qaeda leader, as he may look now without the familiar long beard and turban, was put on the web page of the State Department's Rewards for Justice program to help track him down.
The FBI had said it used cutting edge technology to create the picture.
But the image has been withdrawn after a technician confessed it was based partly on a picture of Mr Llamazares, a Communist deputy in the Spanish Congress.
Mr Llamazares, an ex-leader of Spain's United Left coalition who has been critical of the US War on Terror, wants Spain's foreign ministry to ask the US for an explanation.
"I was surprised and angered because it's the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist," Mr Llamazares said.
"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 admitted Mr Llamazares's hair and forehead were used.
"Our forensic artists have a wide variety of generic facial features which they can chose from the program we use to create these images," an FBI spokesman said.
"For some reason one particular technician was not satisfied with the hair the program was offering and, on their own initiative, decided to turn to the images in Google."
"What he did is totally irregular."
He said Mr Llamazares's image was not chosen intentionally.
and here is a pic of the two together
http://en.trend.az/news_photos/Bin_Laden_Llamazares.jpg
OBL is on the left
source http://www.news.com.au/technology/fbis-osama-bin-laden-image-copied-spanish-politicians-face-from-google-image-search/story-e6frfro0-1225820672160
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what a fail
The US government yesterday withdrew the image after admitting it was partly based on a photo of Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares found on Google.
The image of the al-Qaeda leader, as he may look now without the familiar long beard and turban, was put on the web page of the State Department's Rewards for Justice program to help track him down.
The FBI had said it used cutting edge technology to create the picture.
But the image has been withdrawn after a technician confessed it was based partly on a picture of Mr Llamazares, a Communist deputy in the Spanish Congress.
Mr Llamazares, an ex-leader of Spain's United Left coalition who has been critical of the US War on Terror, wants Spain's foreign ministry to ask the US for an explanation.
"I was surprised and angered because it's the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist," Mr Llamazares said.
"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 admitted Mr Llamazares's hair and forehead were used.
"Our forensic artists have a wide variety of generic facial features which they can chose from the program we use to create these images," an FBI spokesman said.
"For some reason one particular technician was not satisfied with the hair the program was offering and, on their own initiative, decided to turn to the images in Google."
"What he did is totally irregular."
He said Mr Llamazares's image was not chosen intentionally.
and here is a pic of the two together
http://en.trend.az/news_photos/Bin_Laden_Llamazares.jpg
OBL is on the left
source http://www.news.com.au/technology/fbis-osama-bin-laden-image-copied-spanish-politicians-face-from-google-image-search/story-e6frfro0-1225820672160
________________________________________________________
what a fail