Al Qaeda Manipulating Videos

Leave it to the hackers to do the grunt work on exposing fraud in the mass murder movement within Totalitarian Islam. From the Full Story at C/Net News:

"In a presentation at the Black Hat conference here Tuesday, Neal Krawetz of Hacker Factor showed how basic manipulations to images can be revealed through digital analysis.

After presenting on the specific techniques he used, Krawetz launched into what he called the case of "Dr. Z," who happens to be Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 man in al-Qaida.

Using a photo that originally appeared on December 20, 2006, in USA Today, al-Zawahiri appears to be seated before a large banner with a desk underneath. On the desk, in the photo, is a tiny cannon. Yet in the text, al-Zawahiri is described as sitting with "a rifle behind his shoulder that was leaning against a plain brown backdrop."

Using the techniques demonstrated earlier in the talk, Krawetz deconstructed the image to show a halo around al-Zawahiri that suggests that he was likely sitting in front of a monochromatic screen. Even the letters on the banner had been altered. Further, the overall image had been cropped from the original.

Krawetz showed another image of al-Zawahiri from July 27, 2006, showing him seated in what appears to be a television studio. Krawetz said many people who saw this video were outraged that he could sitting in a television studio somewhere, yet the U.S. government couldn't find him.

Image analysis suggests that the studio and the various pictures positioned in the studio around him were added later. Again, a halo around al-Zawahiri suggests that he was shot in front of a monochromatic screen and pasted into a new background."

So al Qaeda, aside from being some of the worst criminals in history, are full of propagandistic crap. Great. So much for the fight against the evils of Hollywood and degenerate ideas of the west; al Qaeda now fancies itself as the new Lucasfilm of the terrorist world.

It wasn't so bad for me, until I realized how crafty Ayman al-Zawahiri had become with his postmodern ambitions. He's making moves in the blogosphere. If you look closely at Lasso of Truth's Pinup Post, you'll see "Dr. Z." sending the secret code for Canadian members of Al Qaeda to get in touch with their feminine sides and "doll up" for the trip to paradise. In the event you can't see it through the clever special effects, I've blown the image up here so that it can be seen clearly by anyone who looks closely:



The attack on the Martha Stewart collection must soon follow. Oh those crafty terrorists and their slick marketing through special effects. I would have never noticed, save for the hard work of dedicated geeks and hackers. Maybe we should turn the geek squad loose in Tora Bora. They're on a roll.