US withdraws Osama Bin Laden mock-up
Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares saw elements of himself in the FBI's mock-up photo of Osama bin Laden
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Sunday, 17, Jan 2010 12:35
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The US state department has withdrawn the mocked up photo of Osama Bin Laden after a complaint by a Spanish politician was followed up.
The image was altered digitally to show what the al-Qaida leader would look like today without his distinctive turban and beard, in a renewed effort to locate his whereabouts over eight years after he orchestrated 9/11 in 2001.
However, the leader of the Spanish communist party Gaspar Llamazares complained that he could see traces of his own appearance in the mock-up of the al-Qaida leader.
He claimed that the forehead, hair and jaw-line were "cut and pasted" from a past campaign photograph.
His observations were proved correct after a spokesman for the FBI Ken Hoffman admitted that a technician "was not satisfied" with the hair features on the software programme and therefore used part of a photo of Mr Llamazares.
Mr Llamazares responded by criticising the "low level" of US intelligence services, adding: "Bin Laden's safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is."