Spanish MP's photo 'used for Osama Bin Laden poster'
A photo of Bin Laden from 1998 (left) was apparently digitally altered using elements from an image of Gaspar Llamazares (right)
A Spanish politician has said he was shocked to find out the FBI had used his photo for a digitally-altered image showing how Osama Bin Laden might look.
Gaspar Llamazares said he would no longer feel safe travelling to the US after his hair and parts of his face appeared on a most-wanted poster.
He said the use of a real person for the mocked-up image was "shameless".
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo said an FBI spokesman had admitted the agency had taken a picture from Google Images.The digitally-altered photos of the al-Qaeda leader, showing how he might look now, aged 52, were issued by the US state department on Friday.
Officials said they had adapted a 1998 file image to take account of a decade's worth of ageing, and possible changes to facial hair.
'Low level' intelligence
Mr Llamazares, 52, the former leader of the United Left coalition in parliament, said he could not believe it when he was first told about the similarity between himself and the new photo-fit of Bin Laden.
He said he soon realised that his forehead, hair and jaw-line had been "cut and pasted" from an old campaign photograph.
Bin Laden's safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is
Gaspar Llamazares
"I was surprised and angered because it's the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist," he told a news conference.
"It's almost like out of a comedy if it didn't deal with matters as serious as Bin Laden and citizens' security."
The FBI claimed to have used "cutting edge" technology, but Mr Llamazares said it showed the "low level" of US intelligence services and could cause problems if he was wrongly identified as the Saudi.
"Bin Laden's safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is," he said, adding that he was considering taking legal action.
El Mundo quoted FBI spokesman Ken Hoffman as saying a technician "was not satisfied" with the hair features offered by the FBI's software programme and instead used part of a photo of Mr Llamazares posted on the internet.
"The technician had no idea whose image he had found and no dark motive for using it," he told the newspaper.
The FBI did not respond immediately when asked for comment on Saturday, requesting that questions be sent to it by e-mail.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8463657.stm