The State Department recently put out what it called enhanced photos of Osama bin Laden and what he might look like aged a few years since his last known photogaph and without his beard. The photos were provided by the FBI and were reported to be created via "cutting edge" technology.
It turns out that all the FBI did was copy and paste the picture of some guy in Spain. The UK's Telegraph reports:
The FBI claimed to have used "cutting edge" technology to reproduce new images of 18 of the most wanted terrorist suspects for the State Department's Rewards for Justice website.
But yesterday Ken Hoffman, a spokesman the FBI, admitted that a technician "was not satisfied" with the hair features offered by the FBI's software programme and instead used part of a photo of Mr Llamazares, found on the internet. "The technican had no idea whose image he had found and no dark motive for using it," he said.
Mr Llamazares said the mistake showed the "low level" of US intelligence services. It could cause problems for any individual mistakenly seen to resemble the wanted terrorist, he said.
"Bin Laden's safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is."
This is something out of a bad sitcom. If they have to resort to this, can anybody really expect them to be competent at all?
ReplyDeleteI blame Hollywood for this. They've created a mystique that these people are the best of the best. They've set the bar too high. In reality, it appears the G men aren't supermen, but a bunch of idiots.
Looks like Bush.
ReplyDeleteYea...but no doubt they'd be able to round up all the important local gang leaders and shoot them in the face should something catastrophic ever happen in DC.
ReplyDeletefunny how he resembles the enemy in 1984. that's a fairly hi-res pic for something "found on the internet". So a fucking FBI computer can predict the fucking future, but it can't get the hair just right? And a "found" photo can? Why the fuck should we care what Osama bin Laden looks like now anyway? I'm not taking the bait for the Bogeyman Extreme Makeover- this is a hit on Mr LLama or some associate, and an opportune moment to fascinate us with bullshit "technology" that is "keeping us safe".
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