Turns out the FBI just used a photograph of a Spanish politician for their Bin Laden photo-fit.
The US state department was forced to withdraw the mocked up photo-image, circulated around the world last week, after the discovery that it was not quite as technically sophisticated as the FBI had originally claimed.
The digitally altered image of an older and greying Bin Laden was meant to show how the world’s most wanted terrorist might now look without his trademark turban and long beard. It was released in a renewed effort to locate him, more than eight years after the September 11 attack which he ordered and directed.
But it created an unexpected stir in Madrid when a Spanish MP recognised strong elements of himself in the image and complained to the US.
Gaspar Llamazares, 52, a member of Spain’s communist party and the former leader of the United Left coalition in parliament, said his forehead, hair and jaw-line had been “cut and pasted” from an old campaign photograph.
It’s good to know that the FBI likes MS Paint. Or perhaps Kid Pix Studio.
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