Spanish Lawmaker Gaspar Llamazares' Photo Used for FBI Poster of Osama bin Laden

FBI used picture of Gaspar Llamazares, a Spanish lawmaker, to create image showing what terror-leader Osama bin Laden might look like today.

So while the devastation in Haiti has taken center stage, a controversy involving the FBI isn't getting enough airplay and it should. Gaspar Llamazares, a Spanish lawmaker, is threatening to sue the FBI. Why? Well, it seems that some genius working for the FBI got his picture from Google Images and used it to create an image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like today. The image using Mr. Llamazares' photo appeared on a Most Wanted poster updating the 1998 photo of bin Laden. According to the Huffington Post, FBI spokesman Ken Hoffman acknowledge to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that the agency used a picture of the lawmaker taken from Google Images. Gee, I thought the FBI has cutting-edge technology to do age-progression images and could have used bin Laden's photo to do that? This is another occurrence for which President Obama must be really ticked off and the terrorists laughing.

In a statement Saturday, the agency would say only that it was aware of similarities between their age-progressed image "and that of an existing photograph of a Spanish public official." "The forensic artist was unable to find suitable features among the reference photographs and obtained those features, in part, from a photograph he found on the Internet," the FBI said in a statement to The Associated Press. The wanted poster appeared on the State Department Web site rewardsforjustice.net, listing a reward of up to $25 million. The FBI said the photo of bin Laden would be removed from the Web site. Source: Huffington Post

Llamazares, a medical doctor, served as the General Coordinator of the Izquierda Unida (United Left) coalition from 2001 to 2008 as the General Coordinator. He was elected to Spain's parliament in 2000. He is currently a member of the Communist Party of Spain. The photograph of him used to make the wanted poster was originally used in his 2004 general election campaign. He has reportedly said that he would no longer feel safe traveling to the United States after his hair and facial wrinkles appeared on the bin Laden image. Yeah, some moron at one of our airports might think he's Osama bin Laden. This is just ridiculous.


Photo credit: Gaspar Llamazares, Profile on Wikipedia.