AP Photo of Iran President as hostage taker. Fake ?

Is the AP photo alledgedly showing the newly elected hardline President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a photo-shop fake ?


First the news story buzzing around the world at the moment.



Now the evidence it is a fake

Bellow is the AP photo of the Iranian President engaging in the hostage taking...



now look closely at these close-up enhancements, the first just a close up and the second inverted






Now, notice that strange white line in the first image around his head? that should NOT be there... I included the inverted image because this line shows up more clerely as black... compare that line to the complete lack of a line around the head of the man next to him against that white background... it just shouldn't be there!

Now i have worked as a photoshop engineer in the past and i would rate this image as a POOR fake... You dont even need to squint to see that something looks strange about his head in it.

opinions?

Edit: This is not a discussion that is suitable for ATSNN.

[edit on 30-6-2005 by SimonGray]

The halo does look suspicious but I'm not 100% sure it's a fake.

Here's another photo that looks like it's from the same scene.

iran2t.jpg

The guy on the far right of the photo looks like the guy you've circled.

A more complete photo here:
empowermentproject

And a color photo:
Iranhostages.jpg

I don't know for sure if it's the new President but it kind of looks like him.
This is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad below:



Notes on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

[edit on 30-6-2005 by AceOfBase]

No, i don't think the image is fake. I think any anomalies are due to enlargement of the original photo.
Remembering the Iran hostage crisis

Sanc'.

If it is due to enlargement then surely the other figure highlighted would also have an halo.

You'd expect consistancy. Right ?

enlargment of the origional photo.... no way, it enlarges all pixels to the exact same degree...

anyway this colour profile shot raises more questions...

the only frontal shot of the President of Iran taking part in the incident is a grainy black and white image... and yet we have this colour pofile image... very strange... You cannot identify someone from a profile shot of them, especially given how long ago this photo was taken... Also, all the news stories indicate that there was only ONE AP reporter who took these images... what happened... the AP reporter decided to take one shot in black and the other in colour? Did e have two different cameras? very strange... Until someone shows me a full frontal full colour photo i still believe that the black and white grainy image is a FAKE and that the colour profile shot is not a fake because it doesnt need to be... its too obscure anyway because its only a profile head shot.

I guess I'm curious as to why this is an issue at all? In the final result, does it really matter? Thanks.

This is the clearest copy of the original photo I've found so far.

November 8, 1979: A blindfolded American hostage is paraded in front of the American Embassy in Tehran. (Photo: AP (file))
CBS

EDIT:
Getty Images has yet another version that is not as cropped.
2669616.jpg


Image #2669616
Title: American Hostage
Subject: News, Unrest, Conflicts and War, Acts of Terror
American Hostage
Caption:
An American hostage being paraded before the cameras by his Iranian captors. Following the Iranian revolution over fifty American hostages were taken and only released after four hundred and forty-four days. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)
Copyright:
By/Title: MPI/Stringer
Date Created: 1 Jan 1979 12:00 AM
City, State, Country: , , Iran
Credit: Getty Images
Collection: Hulton Archive
Getty, Iran Hostages

[edit on 30-6-2005 by AceOfBase]

sigung it matters because Bush wants a war in Iran and he needs to sell it to the People with little psy-ops like this (assuming its a psy-op for a moment).

good find AceofBase... that clearer photo doesn't looks suspicous at all to me, maybe this thread has been debunked anyway debunked or not debunked... its good to scrutinize things like this.

[edit on 30-6-2005 by metallicabrainz]

[edit on 30-6-2005 by metallicabrainz]

Good eye metallicabrainz!
Somethings definintely fishy about that picture. I can't wait to see how ATS rips into this one!

Originally posted by John bull 1
If it is due to enlargement then surely the other figure highlighted would also have an halo.

You'd expect consistancy. Right ?

Point taken, Jb1.

Sanc'.

The 'halo' in question does not seem confined only to the central figure:

The first image has been inverted with no touch-up at all. The second is a high pass set to 5.2 pixels, note also the halo round the chap second from right's shoulder.

Jak

[edit on 30/6/05 by JAK]

In the background there is a guy with his right hand on his hip and his left hand scratching his head.

Is it me or does his right elbow overlap the hostages head in the foreground ?

The more I look at it the stranger it looks.

Originally posted by John bull 1
In the background there is a guy with his right hand on his hip and his left hand scratching his head.

Is it me or does his right elbow overlap the hostages head in the foreground ?

The more I look at it the stranger it looks.

Yeah, I see it too.
That dude is so out of place there

Two more color photos but one of them is really small.

iran_hostage_crisis.jpg

The one below is from a CIA site and seems to be the clearest color photo of the hostage taker:

CIA.gov


[edit on 30-6-2005 by AceOfBase]

so many halo's... maybe they are angels?



actually i'm watching bbc news and they say that examined the footage and have confirmed that the man in the photo is NOT the president, as the man in the photo is too TALL to be the president. So maybe the photo's are real, but this whole thing smells like a dirty little psy-op and i think it will be exposed very soon.

[edit on 30-6-2005 by metallicabrainz]

[edit on 30-6-2005 by metallicabrainz]

Another point worth looking at.

Background left.

OK they are from slightly different perspective but...................

Plants and shrubbery or people sitting and a banner ?



external image

An attempt at clarifying the elbow section:

Jak

this image is so fake... that elbow definetly protrudes infront of the dude's head... good eye you got john bull and jak, i didn't notice that!

If it's a fake it's either a "Straw Man" a deliberate fake made so it can be knocked down like Bushes Service record during the campaign or it was done 30 years ago just to make a better picture.

My bet is the latter.

Sometimes reality isn't quite good enough. Remember the photos that repeated groups of people so that crowds appear larger ?

Here's an version of the frontal color photo with a larger field of view:
x3.putfile.com...

I guess the shrubbery is way over to the left.

EDIT: Removed img tags

[edit on 30-6-2005 by AceOfBase]