Iranian Photoshop Missiles

[Flintlock]

I"m guessing you guys have heard this already but here goes:

Mahmoud the Fauxtographer

Noted document debunker Charles Johnson has noticed something peculiar about one of Iran's bits of official propaganda following Wednesday's missile launch.

Unless Iranian missile exhaust tends to form remarkably regular patterns, someone's been busying himself with the clone tool.

See LGF for the original hi-res image with some of the curious regions highlighted. I've taken the liberty of animating an overlay based on Johnson's apt pattern matching. As a gif, it suffers some degradation from the resolution of the original, but you get the idea.

The Original

This image, part of a framegrab from an Al Alam television broadcast of the launch (apparently taken at approximately the same time from a slightly higher elevation) makes it pretty clear which missile was conjured from borrowed pixels.





The AFP retracts:

A handout picture released on the news website and public relations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards … shows an image apparently digitally altered to show four missiles rising into the air instead of three during a test-firing at an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert on July 9, 2008. The 2nd Right missile has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test.

This seems like a good excuse for a commemorative movie poster.



Suitably Flip: Mahmoud the Fauxtographer

 

[Flintlock]

I feel sorry for the Iranians.

I mean...there are good governments and bad governments. but some governments are just plain stupid.

 

[Awesome]

1. It's smoke.
2. Is the alleged fake been released by the government or did it just start circulating on the internet.

 

[Flintlock]

1. It's smoke.
2. Is the alleged fake been released by the government or did it just start circulating on the internet.

The Iranian Press Agency put up the doctored photos on their website. AFP picked it up from there and circulated it to the entire world.

By the time somebody with sharp eyesight realized that the 4th missile was a fake, it had appeared in most major newspapers and TV Channels.

It turns out that they Iranians had planned to launch 4 missles, but as you can see in the screen-grab, one of the missles didn't fire for whatever reason. So they conjured the 4th launch by using the clone stamp!

You should read some of the headlines...hilarious.

One goes: "Iran Apparently in possession of Photoshop Technology"

 

[Awesome]

Are you sure the origins are from the Iranian Press Agency?

 

[Flintlock]

Are you sure the origins are from the Iranian Press Agency?

Yeah....

Picture: Iran 'fakes' missile launch after misfire

(AFP/Getty)

Four short-range missiles blast off from the Iranian desert, in striking images released yesterday, churning up the red sand and warning the rest of the world: don't mess with Tehran.

Or is it three missiles?

The first picture comes from the Iranian news website Jamejam, and clearly shows one missile has failed to take off. It sits forlornly on its launcher while its three companions power into the sky.

But it was the second image that was released by the PR arm of the Revolutionary Guard – and it seems to have been digitally enhanced to wipe away all traces of the embarrassing dud. Gone is the faulty rocket on its launcher, to be replaced with a fourth successful launch, complete with billowing clouds of exhaust and desert dust.
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Are the Iranians sexing up their own weapons dossier?

Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, thinks they are. "It's ironic - Iran launches these missile tests to demonstrate might, and instead what they demonstrate is foolishness."

He says that the cloud of dust under the missile on the far right has clearly been copied and superimposed over the failed fourth launch, adding: "They come across by amateurs by doctoring it. It's laughable."

The original photo, taken yesterday, documents part of the wargames that caused unease around the world. Mr Fitzpatrick thinks this muscle-flexing was intended not only to warn off Israel and the US, but calm fears at home about the regime's determination to ignore international demands to halt its weapons programme.

"There are two audiences - a foreign and a domestic. The domestic is just as important. There's been a debate in Iran on whether they're doing the right thing," he says. "Israeli sabre-rattling has got them worried - and rightly so".

"The government is trying to calm domestic concerns by showing they can hit back. But sometimes the things they hit back with don't work so well".

The doctored photo is already prompting international ridicule on the internet and Mr Fitzpatrick says Iranians themselves are likely to join in the laughter, despite government attempts at censorship. "Iranians love the internet and are very keen to get round restrictions."

While responsibility for altered version remains unclear, Mr Fitzpatrick believes it is less likely to be a high-level government conspiracy than a case of an overzealous official trying to hide mistakes on the ground. "They got orders to show the world their strength, something went wrong and they tried to cover it up."

Picture: Iran 'fakes' missile launch after misfire - Times Online

 

[Super Falcon]

indian always used to support iran now why you turn your back on them

 

[Malang]

flintlock or nitesh aren't India.. but it was a blunder .. and a very funny blunder..

 

[Goodperson]

indian always used to support iran now why you turn your back on them

One just cannot ignore the truth there was no need to publish photoshopped pictures.