A few days ago, in one of those chest thumping moves cash flush despots sometimes do, Iran tested a few missiles, then released photos as documentary proof.
The New York Times reports the Iranian photo -- an impressive shot with four missiles climbing skyward, plumes of smoke trailing behind -- was distributed by Agence France-Presse and picked up by the Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo News, NYTimes.com, and many other major news Web sites.
The problem was there was another photo from the Associated Press. Three of the missiles were at nearly the altitude of the AFP photo. The fourth was still on its mobile launcher. How could that be? The simple answer from the Times is, it can't.
The non-firing missile had been removed and the fourth missile added using Photoshop or some other program. The Times went into some detail showing how the added missile was a created from the succesfully launched rockets. When a red-faced AFP contacted Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), he said: “It very much does appear that Iran doctored the photo to cover up what apparently was a misfiring of one of the missiles."
The New York Times reports the Iranian photo -- an impressive shot with four missiles climbing skyward, plumes of smoke trailing behind -- was distributed by Agence France-Presse and picked up by the Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo News, NYTimes.com, and many other major news Web sites.
The problem was there was another photo from the Associated Press. Three of the missiles were at nearly the altitude of the AFP photo. The fourth was still on its mobile launcher. How could that be? The simple answer from the Times is, it can't.
The non-firing missile had been removed and the fourth missile added using Photoshop or some other program. The Times went into some detail showing how the added missile was a created from the succesfully launched rockets. When a red-faced AFP contacted Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), he said: “It very much does appear that Iran doctored the photo to cover up what apparently was a misfiring of one of the missiles."
