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Forensic Analysis Reveals Al-Qaeda's Image Doctoring

Posted by Zonk on from the they-really-like-their-macs-too dept.

WerewolfOfVulcan writes "Wired reports that researcher Neal Krawetz revealed some very interesting things about the Al-Qaeda images broadcast in the mass media. Analysis shows that they're heavily manipulated, a discussion meant to illustrate a new technique that can spot forgery in digital media. 'Krawetz was ... able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners ... were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says.'"

10 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. so... by zulater · · Score: 5, Funny

    at least there is someone else as bad as me at Photoshop!

  2. This looks shopped... by ansomatica · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can tell from some of the pixels and having seen quite a few shops in my time.

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    -==-
  3. A doctored picture is worth a thousand lies by davidwr · · Score: 4, Funny

    The tricky part is knowing if it's been doctored.

    OB /.ism: In Soviet Russia, propaganda pictures manipulate YOU!

    Oh wait, that was the whole point :(.

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    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  4. Damn subtitles! by dark-br · · Score: 4, Funny

    So he doesn't have those subtitles in real life? Crap, that means the whole strategy to finding him will have to be changed once again!

  5. They also use outlook for email.... by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Funny

    During a video with Adam Gadahn I almost bust a gut laughing as a Microsoft Outlook email notification box popped up in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. I mean come on guys, you expect me to take you seriously but you use Outlook? Down with America, but we love the products their mega-corporations produce!

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    Monstar L
  6. Re:Done for their safety? by hoggoth · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Osama has any sense of humor at all, in his next videos he will be standing in front of The Whitehouse, standing side-by-side with the Statue of Liberty, as a talking head on Mt. Rushmore, on a fake-studio set of a moon landing, etc.
    Come on, you can't be all 'kill-the-infidels' ALL the time?!

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    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  7. Re:Done for their safety? by Kurrurrin · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/forensics/

    Or maybe he did. Your google-fu is weak.

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    -Doug
  8. Re:Stego by hoggoth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, the NSA has done significant steganographic analysis of the videos.
    They found the hidden subtext: 'BUY MORE OVALTINE'

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    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  9. Re:Great by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just make one up with Photoshop.

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    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  10. what's next? by jafac · · Score: 3, Funny

    LOLJIHADIS?

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    These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.