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Mahmoud the Fauxtographer
Noted document debunker Charles Johnson has noticed something peculiar about one of Iran's bits of official propaganda following Wednesday's missile launch.
Unless Iranian missile exhaust tends to form remarkably regular patterns, someone's been busying himself with the clone tool.
See LGF for the original hi-res image with some of the curious regions highlighted. I've taken the liberty of animating an overlay based on Johnson's apt pattern matching. As a gif, it suffers some degradation from the resolution of the original, but you get the idea.
Silly Mahmoud. We would've found you just as tough and manly with just the two missiles.
Update: This image, part of a framegrab from an Al Alam television broadcast of the launch (apparently taken at approximately the same time from a slightly higher elevation) makes it pretty clear which missile was conjured from borrowed pixels.
Update: Think it's only forged documents and still images that hornswoggle mainstream media outlets? Think again.
Update: The AFP retracts:
A handout picture released on the news website and public relations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards … shows an image apparently digitally altered to show four missiles rising into the air instead of three during a test-firing at an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert on July 9, 2008. The 2nd Right missile has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test.
Update: This seems like a good excuse for a commemorative movie poster.
Click image for full size.
Handcrafted by Flip on July 9, 2008 |
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Comments
Were they distributed by the Associated (with terrorists) Press or Roto Reuters?Posted by: Scrapiron | Jul 9, 2008 11:55:24 PM
I found the original photo with one less missile ! http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=147095&bolum=100Posted by: Jono | Jul 10, 2008 12:10:02 AM
So, anyway they *did* launch the missiles, which is the important point. Who cares if they added one to the pic? The problem here is as Americans we are not used to accept others nation are able to develop technology if we don't want them to. FFS, even Argentina in the mid-80s had missiles able to travel that much. Oh, but we got to stop that program in time all right! (through negotiations though)Posted by: David | Jul 10, 2008 4:04:23 AM
whoever added the missiles also erased one of the launch vehicles.Posted by: Ben | Jul 10, 2008 4:22:48 AM
Ben, nice grab on the lv. looks like maybe they had one that didn't go as planned, and then tried to compensate artistically? there atb another missile on the lv in the foreground.Posted by: stephen | Jul 10, 2008 5:55:34 AM
David: Forest for the trees, forest for the trees. This is not just about photo shopping a missile, it is about western media accepting ANY photo from the middle east, no questions asked, and then passing it off as real. A perfect example is the recent Fauxtography from the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon. quite gullible of AP and Reuters.Posted by: Cdat88 | Jul 10, 2008 6:07:28 AM
David: Yes, we are. Remember WWII?Posted by: theY4Kman | Jul 10, 2008 6:26:50 AM
David, this goes directly to the heart of the Credentialed Media's character. Much like with Obama, it is sorely lacking. As far as Argentina goes, we aren't really concerned about a bunch of crazy Muslim fanatics hell bent on taking over the world launching missiles at us, perhaps with nuclear material.Posted by: William Teach | Jul 10, 2008 8:23:57 AM
David, they are not developing them they buying them off the shelf and pasting on a different decal set.Posted by: XGBC51 | Jul 10, 2008 8:39:09 AM
Wonder if the same Mahmoud moron does Birth Certificates on his lunch breaks? Evabody be sure ta duck, cuz here comes the Argentina Navy or fly Army.Posted by: forest hunter | Jul 10, 2008 9:35:50 AM
I think the reason the extra missile was added is because out of the four missile launchers visible in the original pic, only three fired. One was a dud and you can see the unfired launcher in the original pic. Also see MEMRI's video of the launch.Posted by: SaK | Jul 10, 2008 10:07:33 AM
I think I found the exact image from which the photo edited one was used. It appears to have been slightly cropped when compared to the edited image (the fence line is barely visible in the original), but you can clearly see that the angle is identical.Posted by: lawhawk | Jul 10, 2008 10:41:21 AM
That does seem to be it. Nice find, Lawhawk.Posted by: Flip | Jul 10, 2008 10:46:20 AM
And the NYT now reports that AFP has retracted the image as having been digitally altered. Many news services posted the bogus image on their front page, including the LAT and NYT.Posted by: lawhawk | Jul 10, 2008 10:58:17 AM
What does the awful,terrorist-loving MSM have to gain from accepting information that makes Iran look stronger? Doesn't the MSM, in cahoots with liberals everywhere, want to downplay Iranian strength so that war-mongering right-wingers won't have an excuse to attack Iran?Posted by: Peter Devlin | Jul 10, 2008 11:14:40 AM
I don't care how many missiles they launched those are probably nothing more than long range STA's or TOW's left over from the Islamic revolution. The Iranian government consists of nothing more than a weak group of oligarchs longing to return to the greatness once held by the Persian empire.Posted by: anton | Jul 10, 2008 11:42:50 AM
I posted this on Lawhawk's site. But I see you are doing side by side comparisons, so I thought you might like to give this a look see. Here's what I wrote at Lawhawk: I saw the "original" photo you mentioned at: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/ima...demissiles2.jpg as you stated, on the NYT website. However, the right hand missile has an interesting alteration in the photoshopped image. Note the black smoke 2/3 of the way up the side body of the missile, and the altered plume in the photoshopped image. There would be no reason to make these changes, unless, my guess, the right hand missle failed during launch. It is not good to have extra plumes of smoke coming from the sides of your missile seconds after launch. So, we are now down from four successful launches, to a maximum of two out of four. 50% success rate may be the real reason for the photoshopping. /quote Anyway, the NYT photo, which appears to be from the original before photoshopping shows the black side plumes I mentioned, and I also see them in the frame grab you posted. However the photshopped image airbrushed out the black plumes. Perhaps a side by side blinking image is called for here? Thanks, J.Posted by: j.pickens | Jul 10, 2008 12:19:43 PM
http://www.daylife.com/photo/0gjafLz8Zg5wW/missiles_iran another image apparently, they removed the truck from the picture too (probably while cloning the top of the hill from the right side of the image)Posted by: ec | Jul 10, 2008 1:20:00 PM
David, Argentina has never developed a missile of any kind. You are probably referring to the Excocet anti-ship surface to surface missiles, used during the 80's Falkland war, which they aquired from France. It's amusing what bits and pieces of information people take away from their exposure to media and then reformulate as totally incorrect conclusions. Your post is a good example.Posted by: Rick | Jul 10, 2008 1:45:24 PM
Believe it or not, Iran is capable of launching such attacks.. this is the reason why Americans are hesitant not to have a military attack on Iran. Fake or not Fake... Iran has been in war with Iraq for 8 years and they had over 6 million soldiers killed to defend their country... What make you think they would not do it again.Posted by: Ben | Jul 10, 2008 3:56:35 PM
I did an analysis of the images in question, and there is both more, and less, to this story than it appears: http://xenon.arcticus.com/iran-has-missile-envyPosted by: XenonofArcticus | Jul 10, 2008 4:22:53 PM
AFP now posts the original, non-islamized version of the picture (see link below). You can now see why they modified it: one of the four missiles did not fire. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=645371Posted by: EM | Jul 10, 2008 4:27:06 PM
What many of you seem to be ignoring, is that even one missile is more than enough to kill innocent people. The leaders are the tip of a big, vibrating pyramid, pushed up by perceived pressure from the people, who are being pushed by hate and blind, false interpretations of religion, who represent the lower part of the pyramid... the most force and pressure are concentrated at the tip of the pyramid, and with enough pressure, that tip will push a big red button. I don't think we want that.Posted by: Bullseye | Jul 10, 2008 5:26:10 PM
My God Bullseye you're right. Give 'em what they want and maybe they'll leave us alone! Maybe if we just shut up about their nuclear program they will stop pulling the strings on Hamas, Hezbollah (Middle East version and South American version), the Iraqi insurgency, the Afghan insurgency, oppression of minorities at home, stringing up homosexuals from cranes, and general all-around ass-hattedness. It's a small price to pay, letting decent chaps like that get hold of nukes and developing long-range systems to deliver them with - when the trade off is the remote possibility that they might just behave themselves, a little bit anyway, if we just lay off the criticism.Posted by: Krontekag | Jul 11, 2008 6:03:13 AM
hey had over 6 million soldiers killed to defend their country... What make you think they would not do it again. Sounds good to me. The question is: What would it cost us? as Americans we are not used to accept others nation are able to develop technology if we don't want them to. You seem to have missed the entire Cold-War era. You might want to read up on the Soviet Union developing atomic, then nuclear, weapons.Posted by: mrsizer | Jul 11, 2008 7:40:40 PM
