FBI’s ‘Cutting Edge Photo’ of an Bin Laden Actually Image of Spanish Lawmaker Gaspar Llamazares

This image was published by the US State Department and the FBI

When Gaspar Llamazares saw the super-high-tech computer-aged photo of what Osama Bin Laden ought to look like today, released last week the FBI, he probably did a double take.

The US military has met with little success in either capturing or killing the elusive terrorist who is presumed to have planned a series of attacks against the United States including those of Septembe 11, 2001. There is even a $25,000,000 reward, a hefty sum by any measure, offered by the US State department for the capture of Bin Laden.

So when Gaspar Llamazares saw the computer-aged image he must have been shocked.  After all, Llamazares knew the face well; he saw it every day… in the mirror.

Llamazares is no relative of the Bin Laden family; he’s a Spanish legislator of the United Left party and thus the question of how his photograph made it onto the FBI’s website as that of Osama Bin Laden is a serious one.  Some photo-editing software was clearly involved but while the image the FBI passed off as an artificially aged Bin Laden has clearly been manipulated, the resemblance  is clear, obvious, and unmistakable.

“If this is how security against terrorism is guaranteed,” Llamazares  asked, “whose hands are we in?”  Besides the obvious risk to Llamazares himself should he have run afoul of US counter terror forces armed with something more serious than Adobe Photoshop, the mix-up raises questions as to the quality, effectiveness, and seriousness of the US counter terrorism effort.  An image kludged together from a Spanish electoral poster is unlikely to aid in the apprehension of Bin Laden himself and this incident calls other composite images produced by the FBI into question.

Indeed it casts a shadow over the entire FBI counter terror effort.  How was the image produced?  Was the FBI aware that their computer-aging software was, in fact, a low-budget photo-manipulation of obsure foreign legislators?  What reviews exist for the publication of such materials?  Who authorized not only the release of this photo but the media campaign that accompanied it?

Most importantly, since the image was published last week, did Llamazares manage to board any trans-Atlantic flights to Detroit?