PHOTO EXPERTS-How fake is this photo (WARNING)

[underpants]

I say WARNING not because there is blood or anything like that but it could be a bit shocking to some. This is supposedly the photo related to this:
Web Site Claims GI Captured in Iraq

It is a picture of (supposedly) an American soldier held at gunpoint. I'm sorry it looks very fake to me but I am not expert. I hope it is fake.

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This image of what appears to be a captured US soldier was posted on an Iraqi militant website, Tuesday Feb. 1, 2005. According to the website, the militants threatened to behead the hostage in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The claim could not be verified.(AP Photo)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/iraq_soldier

[bluestateguy]

1. Of course it could be fake

but it's a photo posted on the internet, and it's kind of grainy, so we should not jump to conclusions either way.

[Oreo]

2. Looks like a GI JOE figure to me

even the gun looks fake

[brainshrub]

4. That was my first thought.

But I'm no expert.

[Viking12]

14. I would agree: Here's a picture of the GI Joe.

http://www.hasbro.com/pl/page.viewproduct/product_id.13984/dn/gijoe/default.cfm


On edit: Notice the same uniform, the same grenade vest, the accompanying M-16. Just add knee pads.

[Viking12]

22. And here's the source of the knee pads

Get in gear with exciting equipment and accessories that fit most 12” GI JOE figures!
Set includes knee pads, helmet, ammo belts, goggles, belt, SAW machine gun, ammo canisters, ammo canister pouches and ammo harness.



http://www.hasbro.com/pl/page.viewproduct/product_id.13682/dn/gijoe/default.cfm

[China_cat]

52. Actually, it looks more like a Poser figure.

[ewagner]

3. First thing I noticed

the gun being held to his head is an M-16 NOT AN AK-47 . It could be that whoever is holding him took HIS M-16 away but it's unusual not to see the obligatory AK-47 in the pic......

[Justin54B20L]

If you look carefully, there appears to be no arm or..

hand around the trigger well holding the weapon, also there appears to be no discernible magazine loaded into the weapon.

[fryguy]

23. the trigger isn't in the picture

it is just out of the frame and there does seem to be a magazine loaded

[underpants]

11. IS there a clip/magazine in it? It appears to be up against the wall

taped to the wall just out of picture?

The writing on the banner is very haphazardly done too.

The more I look at it the more it looks fake but I must just be looking with my heart not my head. I hope it is fake.

[ewagner]

26. YOU'RE RIGHT!

No clip/magazine.........

what the hell??????????????????????

[underpants]

29. LOOK HERE or see post #27 below

[Heddi]

5. it looks like the manikin we use in Nursing School

that we use to insert Catheters.

Just the way the face is and the way the knees are bent. Of course, I'm no expert in identifying manikins OR humans, or whatever, but just the way that person/thing is sitting looks EXACTLY like theway the manikins we have in class sit on the floor

[stevedeshazer]

6. What's with the kneepads?

Plus, the head is not proportional to the body.

Fake.

[underpants]

15. What, the color of them?

Everyone wears kneepads these days in the Army. Stopping dropping and rolling is HELL on knees.

[stevedeshazer]

38. No, mean the shape

They don't look right

[fryguy]

17. kneepads protect when dropping one knee to fire

worn by most forces over there now....

[AVID]

7. a bit gory, but . . .

the decapitation could have already happened and the posture staged.

Hard to tell if he is alive.

Bad pic.

[Calico Jack Rackham]

8. Uhhhh Thats a 1/6

scale action figure. Most likely DML or BBI(The same guys who made the Bush doll).

[underpants]

13. That's what I thought too

I knew it looked familiar

[candle_bright]

9. It is weird looking n/t

[SmokingJacket]

10. Wow... that looks as fake as anything I've ever seen.

I'm not an expert though.

But if it is fake, it doesn't mean that a soldier hasn't been captured. He could have been killed before they took a real picture, for instance.

[fryguy]

12. what part looks fake?

just wondering what you're basing your theory on....

[Calico Jack Rackham]

20. LOOK HERE.....NOTICE THE GEAR?

http://www.dragonmodelsltd.com/html/70264page1.html

[fryguy]

34. ok....that DOES throw doubt on it for me now also

the one thing that is giving me pause is the pants where they meet the boots. i can't tell in the pictures from your link if they pants are manipulable (meaning can be un-bloused over one boot as in the Yahoo picture)

the other thing i noticed now is no insignia on the uniform. would likely be at least a shoulder patch visable on the left arm....

[Oreo]

That looks like it to me

What are the chances you just found the exact figure they used.

Again... who knows if this is real. It just doesn't look kosher to me.

The gun in the action figure and the one shown look the same to me

[against all enemies]

57. Shit, they got "Cody".

[Calico Jack Rackham]

42. Dark Brown soled desert boots

haven't been issued since Desert Storm. 20 round M-16 mags haven't been issued since the early 80's

[fryguy]

44. M16 or M4 carbine?

I thought it looks like the latter. As for the magazine size, can't tell for sure but it definitly looks short....

[name not needed]

54. It's an M4 SOPMOD

M4's with the forward grip aren't used outside of Special Forces and airborne troops.

[Pithlet]

16. I hope it is fake.

The man in the picture sort of looks like an action figurine almost. It's grainy though. Hard to tell.

[DrWeird]

18. Looks real enough to me.

I think there's a lot of wishful thinking going on.

If they captured the guy, they'd have got his M-16 to, plus the hand that's holding it would be off camera. The guy's head looks out of proportion, but mostly due to his oversized vest.

his posture, with his head forward as he's leaning back against the wall, and his legs splayed like that doesn't look like a mannequin or an action figure.

But we should all find out soon enough.

[aden_nak]

19. The face and the gun, something is wrong.

Good call that it's a strange choice of rifle. Not sure if that's an M16 (I am no expert, though I am not familiar with the handgrip shown near the front of the rifle), but clearly not the sort of weapon favored by insurgents. But beyond the model of the gun is the coloration, the angle, and the odd lack of any support. . . almost as if they were trying to make it obvious that it's a "real" gun.

As for the face itself, it could just be blurry. Though if I were trying to fake this photo, that's exactly the way I would do it. First you add a noise layer (look at the wall behind him) and then you overblur the image to smooth out the noise while simultaneously giving the whole picture that "plastic" look.

The thing to remember about the face is that if you take the vest off, the head would look much more proportional than it does there. You really have to judge by the line of his shoulders beneath the vest, because the vest is clearly riding up on him. However, that being said, the head is rather HIGH, suggesting that it was 'shopped into place there because the 'shopper didn't want to fudge the top of the vest.

Is it a fake? Very possible. Could it be real? Sure. It's hard to tell, because of the highly mediocre condition of the photo itself. A larger copy would reveal more. The skintones look very matted and the eyes. . . the eyes have something wrong with them. As if they had been accentuated on purpose, though for all we know, this could be a real photo that had the eyes altered to make it more disturbing.

[madrchsod]

21. maybe "elgringo" can help us out....

who is " elgringo" check the work he does----<http://www.prwatch.org/forum/showthread.php?p=12485#post12485>
Forums - Photoshopped Propaganda.......you`ll have to scroll up the page to start..this was on buzzflash yesterday

[xultar]

24. Y'all That is a BLACK MAN. There aren't any action figures with that

kind of nose.

I'm sorry you had to go through this Bruva.

[underpants]

27. xultar look at this (EVERYONE LOOK HERE)

http://www.monkeydepot.com/merchant/indexmain.htm

[xultar]

28. BUHWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

I am GLAD I'm WRONG!!!!!!

[underpants]

32. "bluestatedem" (1st post on LBN thread) posted that

That has to be the same. I hope

[Squatch]

30. Well, that pretty much puts this story to rest...

LOL

[xultar]

31. OMFG!!!! OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!

OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!OMFG!!!!

[SheepyMcSheepster]

37. nice find

that's got to be it.

[Swamp Rat]

39. HOLY SHIT!

underpants, this deserves a thread all its own!

[underpants]

41. Go ahead-I didn't find it

be my guest

"bluestatedem" 1 post total on DU put in on the LBN thread

[Mizmoon]

51. I wonder if it's all a promotion

for this website or these dolls ...

[Swamp Rat]

35. .

:cry:

Poor blacks, whites, Latinos... poor Americans are the ones dying, not the rich assholes nor their spawn, sitting on their cushy thrones. They get to send others to die for their personal profit. They are not Americans - they are 21st Century Nazi Robber Barons.

[The_Casual_Observer]

25. My guess is that it is real.

All the other ones were real, what would be the point of faking it? Time will tell.

[Squatch]

33. No, Underpants will tell.

[Wickerman]

36. Could be staged

fakery.

There doesn't seem to be a magazine in the gun - and why a M-16?

It seems to be a vid-cap from a video stream of some sort which is why its so poor quality.

I looked at it in photoshop at 500x resolution and it doesn't have obvious signs of editing or cropping at first glance.

[underpants]

40. See above

it's a toy

[Wickerman]

45. yeah, you (*&(*$#$ posted that while I was looking at the damn photo

:argh:

thanks! :hi:

[underpants]

48. Sorry

:spank:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

43. It looks like someone placed the face on it

I am willing to bet it's a real person with a fake face placed over it.

I don't think it's a soldier. Just my opinion.

[Jrofosho]

46. drudge

drudge seems to think it's fake as well.

He posted this.

[ultraist]

47. It might be fake or doctored because the soldier is dead

Are there any missing soldiers right now? That's the first question. If no soldiers are missing, that pretty much solves the mystery. If there are missing soldiers, this may be him in a photo that was doctored to hide the fact he's already dead.

[KissMeKate]

49. looks like a mannequin

or a doll.

[Pork Chop]

50. I saw this on Sludge

[unpossibles]

53. obviously a fake

very fake looking. Not only the figure, but the focus is all wrong too - and as someone who used to take pics of his action figures when little, it's a common thing. Looks like the models in those old Godzilla movies.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/01/iraq.hostage.ap/index.html

[TryingToWarnYou]

55. Completely fake.... here is link to action figure.

Inline image for those that dont want to open.

[maveric]

56. The head is a little small for that body. Would'nt you say so?

And those arent GI combat boots.

[TOOLZ]

58. It's a sad day when we can't even protect our action figures

We could send in Sponge Bob to rescue him, but he was discharged under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule.

[Dukkha]

59. NEW EXCLUSIVE PHOTO U.S. SOLDIER ATTACKED

Three Iraqi Insurgents captured a U.S. Soldier today in Bagdad

[Balbus]

60. That made me laugh!

despite the sad nature of the topic...

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

62. FAUX News will air this as truth..........

......."we distort, you comply".

[Up2Late]

63. LMAO

Hey, is that OB1KNOB?

That's funny!:yourock:

[ultraist]

61. What LAME ASS journalists published before knowing if any soldiers

were missing? That was my first question. GLAD to hear that there are not any missing.

Freakin' irresponsible, reckless media. :eyes:

[Up2Late]

64. How much you want to bet He becomes the NEW White House...

Press Secretary?

I hope Scott McLie-a-lot has his resume in good order:silly: