LA Times: Did The US Photoshop Syrian Nuke Photos?

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 here.

Comments

[MikeDu]

No water pipes running to/thru the place? Judging by the size of the trucks in the pictures that building's significantly smaller than they want us to believe. I recall the Reagan admin did much the same in the 80's, cam out with a booklet of scary looking cartoon drawings depicting the 'formidable' Soviet military threat.

[dr4Will]

they lied before and no one said anything--why not try again--that's the bush,cheeny mentality!!

[jake666]

Why is Israel the only ones allowed to have nukes. Maybe if Isreal didn't have nukes, no one else would need them

[jake666]

Why is Israel the only ones allowed to have nukes. Maybe if Isreal didn't have nukes, no one else would need them.

[noliberals]

It doesn't matter the Syrians wouldn't even admit there was an attack they had to have been up to something. They would have been asking the world to condem the attack, instead they pretended like it did happed.

[TXfemmom]

The Israelis desperately are working with the neocons, i.e. Cheney, etc., to get the U. S. to hit Iran, as they did with Iraq. The Israelis want us to hit what they consider to be their boogeymen and they haven't learned anything from the mess and disaster of Iraq.

They want to give Cheney lies as evidence, and Cheney is using his people remaining within the community to try to justify hitting Iran, no matter what the consequences, and Cheney and the Israelis are as crazy about this as Hitler was, and they are leading the U. S. down the road to destruction, just as surely as Hitler did Germany. Cheney sees his opportunity slipping away and he is using the same lies, distortions, trickery, and TREASONOUS actions which he used to get us into Iraq.

The American people and the media better call his hand and stand up now, or Cheney will do something right after the election in respect to hitting Iran and causing WWIII, if McCain is not elected. Of course, if McCain is elected, he would probably start the war, in any case, but for now, it is imperative that the people of this country stand up and YELL HELL NO TO CHENEY AND THE NEOCONS.

[cam]

The photo may not have been digitally enhanced by hand - it may be what is known as a synthetic aperture image based on several images taken as the satellite flew at an angle over the site. The narrowly focused detail would follow.

Shadows that do not correspond with the objects that cast them are more likely to be associated with ground relief than with an incompetent photo artist.

Moreover, the photo has very little value in making the intelligence case. Even if it was photoshopped it would have little impact on the rest of the intelligence case for believing the site was a nuclear site. The corroborating evidence is very pursuasive - ironclad if you believe the photos of the reactor were actually taken onsite.

The waterpipe and the lack of powerlines supports the argument that the reactor was designed to produce plutonium. All they needed was cooling - they weren't interested in generating power.

Finally, the most damaging evidence is post mortem. If the site was not a nuclear site the Syrians would have opened it for international inspection immediately after it was destroyed. That obviously wasn't an option.

[Birdman]

So lets see in your you rmind it is okay to say well I think they did this or they did that to enhance this phote and therefore it is ok to me. Well lets say you are right, and the process as you explain it is benign then why not say so to everyone viewing the picture, that this enhancement is what we did to get the details etc. They did not tell anyone it was digitally enhanced, and why is that? It si possible there were no windows on this building they were placed there digitally to mimic or duplicate the Korean structure to show a connection to the North Koreans and part of the bigger lie to make the connection, see this is a reacotor building, somithing looks familiar, wait a minute... it lookes just like this Korean one, and we know the Koreans are bad bad people. Yes you may be correct in your analysis, but since my government has a habit of lying thier asses off to suit their own needs, you will excuse me if I tend to be overly critical of anythign they say or do, and you should as well, if we do not poo poo these obvious fakeries or at least challenge them on having better proof, them we will contine to have one Iraq aftter another., and frankly I have had enough.

[Chavez08]

Well, I happen to think it's important to neutralize these middle-eastern countries militarily, pre-emptively.

I believe we should attack Dubai and Saudi-arabia immediately for the safety and security of this great nation.

[castrochavez08]

Wow cam, you are so smart. You can tell all of this from the photo, sure.

The photo has very little value in making the intelligence case?
Or is it just part of a pattern of lies like WMD in Iraq, yellow cake from Niger, being sold to us by ex-Generals on the Pentagon payroll?

Each of their lies was just one small lie in and of itself, but taken together it was a propaganda campaign.
This photograph is more of the same.
But it is very nice of you to drop by and explain it all for us. Is this your point?
Nevermind the fake photography, forget about it. Syria is bad, really bad, they have nukes, be afraid, be afraid. Did I miss anything?

Your water pipe to plutonium logic is quite remarkable.
Maybe you have a water pipe of your own in use right now, or maybe you think we do. How else could you expect anyone to be fooled by your pro-war comment?

[cam]

If the photo was photoshopped by someone, as the original post claims, then it would be represhensible because it would be distorting the data subjectively. But if it was done algorithmically - say by cross-correlation - then it is acceptable because it is simply revealing information that is present across several pictures but not evident in any single one. It is a similar procedure to taking two pictures at slightly different angles and then viewing them with a stereoscope to see three-dimensional data - the same procedure that was used by the British to detect hidden German radar installations during WWII.

The perception the photo was photoshopped by some propogandist is naive. The photo shows a building - nothing more. Now if the building's existance were in dispute ...?

And yes, if the Syrians were intending to produce plutonium then there are good grounds to be concerned. Certainly the evidence on hand suggests it.

And I am not pro war - just pro truth.

[rroy]

Whoops,I just nodded off reading some of the endless conjecture about what is really going on!!
To tell the truth,I can't figure out the motivation or evidense that justified an Israel Air Force bombardment-of course with American made aircraft-of Syrian Terrirtory!
Some of the things that really bother me are;we and our brainwashed leaders continue actions and attitudes that have gone on for,in some case centuries,and simply can not come to grips with the facts that tese attitudes and their consquences are totaly outdated and unjustified.
Just about every action and attitude promulgateed by America and Isreal is a manifestation of continued Colonial arrogance!
We simpy cannot accept the fact that both the U.S.and Zionism are colonial intruders from a foreign land!We cannot and will not stop intruding in this ara and let the people of the area determine their own destiny.
Until some force is placed in power in the U.S.that is capable of thinking outside the traditional Colonialist Box the Middle East and it's Colonialist intruders is doomed to eventual disaster.

[bogananda666]

Israel is not a Non Proliferation Treaty[NPT] signatory and Syria has signed the NPT. At the behest and with USA equipment Israel, the non NPT, attacked Syria, the NPT signatory, for the ALLEGED production of nuclear weapons although the facts are to the contrary. Let's see a nuclear weapons program without guards or fences, hmmmm. Just when you think, always wrongly, that the Bush maladministration can't get more absurd or insulting they surpass what they had done the previous hour with their insults and absurdities. Anyway, their is something very wrong with the USA having a non NPT signatory, Israel, attack a NPT signatory, Syria. It's total insanity.

[PierreLeClerke]

Maybe the only person this hack job snow job was intended to sway was the decider himself.
incurious george was put in his position because he does not think for himself. Watch him closely when he gives a speech. There are several occasions that george suddenly gets what he just said and is impressed with the text as if he had thought of it himself.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

The bigger question is why wasn"t the appropriate committee in Congress not briefed on the fact the Bush Administration was inserting themselves into an attack on another country. The bigger question is, do you really think Bush-Cheney aren"t going to hit Iran without Congressional approval? I think if a Democrat is president elect, you can bank on it.

[Gargett]

The building looks like one of the 3-D jobs in Google Earth, especially the ?overhang? on the side nearest the bottom of the photo. Amateurs!

[ottonomy]

FYI the screenshot everybody is saying is Photoshopped is part of the 3-d model from the video. There are "real" photographs mixed in with a 3-d simulation of the building in the video presentation. Go to armscontrolwonk.com for the video and photos etc.

[Chavez08]

Question:

How do you know when the War Party is lying?

[LaurieLee]

Whenever they open their mouths?

[nicho]

This fascist administration has told nothing but lies for eight years. I can't believe anyone even entertains the ludicrous possibility that they might now be telling the truth. Of course, they're lying.

[escobar]

Their plan is laid out in the PNAC papers published years ago.
The vision to establish a New Roman empire in the absence of Soviet power.
It was signed by the most influential men in the country today.
The government has taken out loans to finance two wars based upon lies now.
They went after Bin Laden late then let him go. Now they find others who will shoot back. Where is the surprise? The Afghans have always resisted foreign dominance. There will always be people willing to fight. Especially when they have nothing to lose.
The entire scene has nothing to do with anything but international corporate interests and that of the weapons makers.
Of course, they are lying!
They haven't told the truth since before the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
If the public were not so gullable it would be funny.
There is nothing special about that building.
It could be a school, hospital, insurance company, anything at all.

[bogananda666]

A secret nuclear facility without a fence, yea sure.

[bob5701]

Adobe strakes again.

[drblack]

With the technology available today why trust anything the US government says or does?
We need to send real ,actual people to investigate things. Fuzzy images aren't enough even if they were real.