Iran 'fakes' US photos
American blogger says Fars News Agency used Photoshop to clone 'evidence' of US weapons
On Sunday, Fars said in a report that terrorists using "US-gifted arsenals" were behind the bomb blasts
which killed 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards last week.
The report claimed terrorist arsenals "have been confiscated" in police raids, and included an image with a red circle drawn around bullets with a USA tag on them. US dollars were also visible in the photograph.
"The weapons that the terrorists have used are US and British made. Moreover, the arrested terrorist agents have confessed that they have been trained by English-speaking people," a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying.
'Elements cloned over and over'
But an American blogger was quick to point out that the image has been manipulated. Little Green Footballs, the weblog of Charles Johnson, who was the first to call attention to manipulated photos by Reuters during the Lebanon war, said his readers tipped him off "to a blatant Photoshop fraud in an article claiming to have discovered US weapons in Iran."
"A close look (actually, you don't have to look that closely) shows that many elements of this picture are cloned over and over," Johnson added.
The blogger reproduced a flashing animation created by one of his readers, showing that grenades, money stacks, demolition charges, cans, and ammunition boxes have all been cloned in the image.
The Fars report went on promise that "relevant documents, photographs and film footages showing that the explosives and arsenals used in the attack were American would be presented to the public and media in the near future."
