Updated, 9:33 a.m., Agence France-Presse has retracted the image as “apparently digitally altered.”
As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of 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. Agence France-Presse said that it obtained the image from the Web site of Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, on Wednesday. But there was no sign of it there later in the day. Today, The Associated Press distributed what appeared to be a nearly identical photo from the same source, but without the fourth missile.
As the above illustration shows, the second missile from the right appears to be the sum of two other missiles in the image. The contours of the billowing smoke match perfectly near the ground, as well in the immediate wake of the missile. Only a small black dot in the reddish area of exhaust seems to differ from the missile to its left, though there are also some slight variations in the color of the smoke and the sky.
Click here for true photo.
Thanks to Ian Warner.
Headline: Iranians lead in modern military tech
subhead: Create virtual armed forces
It’ll be a long time before those Iranians match the world’s real powers at photoshop.
They’ll probably try to start seducing graphics folk from other nations in the same way Iraq recruited munitions folk.
Very tricky.
FAIL.(in the original picture there’s an idle rocket sitting on it’s launcher)
Looks like the little piece of tape that holds the ignitor in the engine must have come loose.
Either that or the aligator clips that hook onto the ignitor are shorting out across he small metal blast sheild.
A select few of you who enjoyed model rockets as a kid are out there shaking your heads!
Just in time for the olympics to provide media cover whilst Isreal & the USA go fuck the Iranian’s nuke labs
Expect oil to glide way past $200
Trying to cover up a failure to launch.
The bad photoshop is truly sad.
The model rocketry imagery is priceless. Thanks for the memories…it was almost always that the little blast plate shorted things, then when it was fixed the little tape would fall out and burn up your last solar ignitor….awww, the tragedy of it all.
*igniter
The problem with being at this stage is you run the risk of being killed before you get more dangerous.
I’d say one failure to launch or the missile would not have been in the picture.
Please note that they are mobile systems. Finding these things gave us problems during our last conflict. They can hide under overpasses and such. Another issue is it can be kind of hard to tell a cheap fake from something more effective from way up. That can get expensive fast.
Of course the gov’mut can print all the money it wants which is why the value of the dollar is going into the crapper are already has. YMMV.
…#7 and a major contributor to why the relative price of gas has gone up. It is more about our weak dollar than the cost of a barrel of oil. But, folks don’t like to face that.
Iran has the strongest photoshopped WMD in the world!
Normal for the ME press. During the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the fauxtography coming from Hezbollah was hilarious. My favorite was the one where they claimed they sank an Israeli Navy ship, and they had a photo of it blowing up.
Problem was that someone recognized the photo. It was really a decommissioned Australian Navy ship that was being sunk for a reef.
That Dr. Photo must be a real prick.
These test missiles sure are close together. How are they going to save face?
OH MY GOD!!!
They only launched 3 missiles instead of 4.
WHAT A SCANDAL!!!
Maybe they didn’t want the world to see the launcher?
The Iranian army is no match for poor Photoshop skills. ART NOT WAR!!
@18 the answer
Reminds me of Dada.
Soon they will be able to sex down their women in magazines.
Actually it’s quite an amazing piece of art! The original original was a boy flying a kite.
While I’m sure that a ballistic missile created terror & confusion during World War II, this is the year 2008 and frankly, nobody is impressed anymore.
Obviously the west is pushing an agenda if they are working so hard to make us all scared of rockets!
Doctoring photos is so silly, its normally something only the USA does.
This wasn’t the only misleading “photoshopped” image of WMD. I saw how new software can identify these fakes. And a news photo of the destructive bombing of an Israeli town was doctored to show more smoke and fires than it really had. I guess the photog was late capturing the true image. So he supplied what he felt was the correct view for that time.
BTW, I only saw what looked like short range missiles. Where were the long range ones, and how many were there really?! And why didn’t the free world react this way to North Korea’s missile launchings. As far as I know, there’s no plan to build a “missile defense” anywhere around them. If Bush isn’t carefull (and he so rarely is), he’ll have Russia pissed off at us and rekindle the cold war. But that will be super profitable to his business partners in Raytheon, I’m sure.
#24 – Glenn E. – …North Korea’s missile launchings. As far as I know, there’s no plan to build a “missile defense” anywhere around them.
Perhaps if you read the news, you could write something that isn’t based on ignorance.
Congratulations… Hat trick! Your third post with nonsense.
All the more reason to cripple the Bush administration before they act on their obsession to bomb Iran.
Start impeachment now — with Dick Cheney first.
Ha! Iran! Noobs!
Rule number one control the media, edit all of the footage before releasing the propaganda to the public.. Want to play with the big boys you have to learn big boy tactics or else you’ll never get that seat on the U.N. security council.
On another note Iran is the 2nd ranking OPEC oil producer. How will this now effect the price of oil?
More LIES AND FABRICATION FROM THE NEO-CONS !!! They will DO ANYTHING TO KEEP THEIR WARS GOING OR START NEW ONES !!! The PROFITS ARE JUST ***TOO GOOD*** !!!
The vast majority of Iran’s rockets are short range of 50 miles or less. They have some 100 mile range, and maybe a hundred or so 200 mile range. You can count on your hands how many 1200 mile range rockets they have, and none have warheads that are nuclear, biological or chemical.
Analysis: Worthless.
Compare & contrast to Israel. Jericho I & Jericho II rockets, MRBM ballistic missiles of 400-1200 mile range with NUCLEAR warheads, possibly thermonuclear. I’d say about 100 of them. The Shavit “space launch” vehicle, otherwise known in military circles as an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. they usually can do 5000-7500 miles and of course they have nuclear warheads.
So who is the helpless one in the region?
Here is what is important to take from the picture. Their program is where our missile program was in the 50’s. They are having missile failures. If they took the time to fake it, it means its a common occurance. But they want to come off stronger. Its a PRIDE issue. It also means that they are still working. And as another writer noted, these are mobile launchers. NOT FUN. They may not be able to play with the big boys yet, but they want to, and they are determined. And they have the cajones to play missile games with the Israelis. Any suggestions to get off this cliff?