FBI used Google snap of Spanish politician to create ‘aged’ Osama Bin Laden

    A Spanish lawmaker [a member of Communist Party of Spain] was stunned and horrified to find out that the FBI used his photograph as part of a digitally enhanced image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like today.

Well, I have to say that the similarity is striking. Must make him proud, but the guy isn't feeling good, and for a reason:

    The 52-year-old politician said he would not feel safe traveling in the U.S. now, because many airports use biometrics technology that compares the physical characteristics of travelers to passport or other photographs.

One can understand the logic of that sentiment, however he spoils the effect by adding:

    I have no similarity, physically or ideologically, to the terrorist bin Laden.

He is mistaken not only about his physical similarity to OBL, which is obvious, but also about that second item. Proof:
Welcome to America, comrade Llamazares / Bin Laden. I hear them Homeland Security folks have especially cold and humid dungeons with huge rats and dripping with sewage ... The US government has withdrawn an age-enhanced image of Osama Bin Laden after admitting it was partly based on a photo of a Spanish politician found on Google.

The image of the Al Qaeda leader, as he may look now without the familiar long beard and turban, was put on the webpage of the State Department’s Rewards for Justice programme.

The FBI had said it used ‘cutting edge’ technology to create the picture to track down the world’s most wanted terrorist.

But it has been withdrawn after a technician confessed it was based partly on a picture of Gaspar Llamazares, a Communist deputy in the Spanish Congress.

Llamazares, an ex-leader of Spain’s United Left coalition, has been critical of the US War on Terror and wants Spain’s foreign ministry to ask the US for an explanation.

An FBI spokesman admitted Mr Llamazares’s hair and forehead were used.

He said: ‘Our forensic artists have a wide variety of generic facial features which they can chose from the programme we use to create these simulated images.

‘For some reason one particular technician was not satisfied with the hair the programme was offering and, on their own initiative, decided to turn to the images in Google. What he did is totally irregular.’

The spokesman insisted Mr Llamazares’s image was not chosen intentionally.

A spokesman for the United Left said they doubted the photo of Mr Llamazares was used by accident.

He stated: ‘We in the United Left do not believe in coincidences.’