LA Times: Did The US Photoshop Syrian Nuke Photos?

LA Times:

Professor William Beeman at the University of Minnesota passed along a note today from "a colleague with a U.S. security clearance" about the mysterious Syrian site targeted in a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike.

The note raises more questions about the evidence shown last week by U.S. intelligence officials to lawmakers in the House and Senate.

Read the whole story: LA Times

Comments

[sparkey]

I zoomed in on the picture to 200% and noticed that the shadows look like they were put in with the paintbrush on windows imaging. It doesn't look like anybody even cared to do a half way good job. Whoever did it must have figured we were too stupid to notice the bad shadows.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Like I said, this and the bin ladin tapes are all fakes. They obviously hires some guys who are not even adequate in adobe and assumed nobody would notice. Um, how dumb do they think we are? This is just sad and desperate. Bush can't get his war any other way than to falsify documents. That is treason folks, grounds for a war tribunal to find him guilty of war crimes and arrest him. As for the bin ladin tapes? Anyone else notice how the guy's face keeps totally changing, as in its not the same guy twice? Hello.

[axt113]

Bush is wagging the dog

[journey80]

The thing that continues to strike me is that they don't even bother to do this stuff well. I could do a better job than that. Astonishing.
I used to think it was some kind of up-yours-w­e-don't-ha­ve-to-care thing, but more and more you have to wonder if, man, these people really are that incompetent.
On balance, though, I still have to go with the up-yours thing....

[skibum49]

I guess I fail to see the significance of this debate. Of course this is not raw imagery from a reconnaissance satellite. These photos don't show up in 3D format. This photo has been enhanced. So what? Anybody who has experience with photo analysis knows that these photos are often modified as a 3D enhancement will sometimes show details not apparent in the raw image.

[laserbob]

What I'd like to know is where are any power lines?.
I've looked closely around this facility in Google
Earth and there are no power lines to be found.
Yes, it's possible that it could have been run from
a genset, but I suspect that except in an emergency,
it would not be a wise thing to run any type of
nuke processing off of a diesel generator. Also,
as this was intended to be a covert facility, a genset
would put off tons of IR that could easily be
spotted by satellite. As would the constant
movement of trucks in and out to refuel the
generators. Also, it's damn hot there, working
without air conditioning would be just about
impossible, and with a building that size, it's going
to be a pretty hefty AC service to cool something like
that down to normal room temps. I've worked in both
Damascus and Aleppo in the summer, and it gets
up to +135 during the day, so this lone building seems
to be lacking the utilities that would be needed to
make it inhabitable for work.

lb

[fourex]

yes they did

[JoeBlough]

A copy and paste from a video game. You rubes will believe anything.

[evilzed]

Are the wonderful mainstream media, who gave us Saddam’s mythical Weapons of Mass Destruction, lying to us again? The answer is yes.
Last fall, journalist Laura Rozen spoke with Joseph Cirincione, director of nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress. Cirincione says
“In attacking Dair el Zor in Syria on Sept. 6, the Israeli air force wasn’t targeting a nuclear site but rather one of the main arms depots in the country. Dair el Zor houses a huge underground base where the Syrian army stores the long and medium-range missiles it mostly buys from Iran and North Korea. The attack by the Israeli air force coincided with the arrival of a stock of parts for Syria’s 200 Scud B and 60 Scud C weapons.”
Cirincione says that there is a small Syrian nuclear research program, which has been around for 40 years and is going nowhere. “It is a basic research program built around a tiny 30 kilowatt reactor that produced a few isotopes and neutrons. It is nowhere near a program for nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel,” he said. Over a dozen countries have helped Syria develop its nuclear program, including Belgium, Germany, Russia, China and even the United States, by way of training of scientists, he said.

[evilzed]

So what is really going on here? Cirincione told the BBC that “This appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted ‘intelligence’ to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political agenda.” The preexisting political agenda may be promoting a war with Syria and/or Iran, or torpedoing negotiations between the US and North Korea. Finally, Cirincione adds ominously “If this sounds like the run-up to the war with Iraq, then it should.”

[Rog49Thomas]

First, there is an extensive discussion at the LA blog article referenced here pro and con as to why the picture is or isn't "photo shopped". That really needs to be read.

Second, whether the picture is or isn't photo shopped is an important issue and no doubt one's conclusion may well be driven more by ideology than fact.

What's very interesting is what this demonstrates about the level of credibility of Pan's Administration.

That the allegationof photo-shopping is not dismissed out of hand.

It shows the profound damage that Pan has done to our national credibility. Which like it or not is an important "weapn" in advancing our national security interests.

Third, I just can't resist ....

“The British Government has learned that Bashir Al Assad recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Bob Novak.”

[aristippe]

who is Pan?

[BlueStateMan]

Pan was a Satyr, a son of Hermes and a nymph.

[VivaZapata]

that would mean the US and Israel want to provoke a war with Syria: how could that be?

[AndrewInToronto]

I'm not sure but if one looks at the shadows of the buildings in the photo-link embedded in the LATimes article, they do not have the same orientation of other buildings or the circular tower which seems to be venting steam.

[CC1]

Sad to say I would not be surprised at all if the US government did doctor those photos. Even if they did not, who would believe it? Government credibility here has been shot for a long time.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Anyone who has ever worked in media knows how easy it is to fake something. Given the fact this administration faked the WMD photos that embarrassed Colin Powell, this is no suprise to me. This is a serious fake job. Bush is hellbent on having his war in iran. He will stop at nothing to get it. Its time this man is impeached and jailed for war crimes. Folks wake up and smell the hummus will ya?

[aristippe]

"Bush is hellbent on having his war in iran."

These are photos are of an alleged site in Syria not Iran twit.

[brainlego]

A more permanent presence in the entire middle-eas­t...that is the neocon blueprint which existed before 9/11
Iran is an important goal for the imperialis­ts...

[Plank]

This story seems to be following an all too familiar pattern. The fabrications that led to the Iraq war involved satellite pictures. There was the famous meeting between iraqi officials and al qaida in Prague. Now we hear about a meeting between Syrian officials and North Koreans. While the democrats are tearing each other apart, Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons are busy preparing for the next war in time for the November election.

[artsandminds]

America's greatest threat is not Iran, but Israel, and its constant instigation of hostilities towards Middle East countries

[awcbuddy8]

Just ridiculous.

[ZingoBonMot]

Crikes! Tell me that's not the vid theyre trying to pawn off as evidence. It looks like an old Sanyo VCR player sprayed with gray primer. I've built more believable HO model train sets.

[TakeSake]

I'm thinking it looks like Microsoft Paint.

[CC1]

Right, which is even more reason to cut them off financially.

[BlueStateMan]

Nonsense.

[brainlego]

If you want war all you need is a few scares every now and then...so photoshopping could certainly help.