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Fars News Agency Fake Photo Fools Iranian Official and Media

FARS agency fake photo
FARS agency fake photo
A doctored photograph apparently supplied to the FARS News Agency by an unnamed security official

Iran’s semi-official Fars Newsagency published a fake photograph on Sunday 18th February, that purports to show US-manufactured ammunition had been supplied to the Balouchestan bombers – and by implication, the US supported the bombers by supplying them with weapons.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) – Following a Saturday report about the use of US manufactured weapons in the recent terrorist operations in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan, a security official provided FNA with a photograph of the said weaponry.

These arsenals have been confiscated during a raid on the hideout of a terrorist group known as Jondollah in the provincial capital city of Zahedan on Thursday.

Today, the Fars News Agency reported that Deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission said the agents in charge of the terrorist blasts in Iran’s southeastern city of Zahedan enjoyed the United States’ support.

Detective work by bloggers in the US resulted in the discovery that the “confiscated arsenal” photograph was actually a fake, created by copying weapons components multiple times.

The popular blog www.littlegreenfootballs.com carried a copy of the photo above and also a flash movie showing how the copying was done. The blog complains that the LA Times gave credence to the bogus claim, but investigation of the LA Times story shows the Times was skeptical of the information, attributing it to the FARS News Agency and the unnamed “security official.”

See the flash movie created by Dar Ul Harb, that shows how the photograph was fabricated.

It is not clear if the “security offical” who provided the photo was a fabrication and the “evidence” was created by FARS or known to be fake by FARS. There is no way to tell id the “security official” was involved in the fabrication. In any case, the fake photograph appears to have fooled the Deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission.

Photographic evidence is becoming more difficult to trust, but luckily, there are many tell-tale signs on this particular photograph (see above). Over time, it will become more difficult to trust what we see in photographs and videos.

Ed: Media must check sources more thoroughly. The race to be the first to cover a story needs to be tempered with the need to be right – or at least reasonably sure the information is correct and the source reliable.

Alan Gray is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NewsBlaze Daily News and other online newspapers. He prefers to edit, rather than write, but sometimes an issue rears it’s head and makes him start hammering away on the keyboard.

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Alan has been on the internet since it first started. He loves to use his expertise in content and digital marketing to help businesses grow, through managed content services. After living in the United States for 15 years, he is now in South Australia. To learn more about how Alan can help you with content marketing and managed content services, contact him by email.

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Alan is also a techie. His father was a British soldier in the 4th Indian Division in WWII, with Sikhs and Gurkhas. He was a sergeant in signals and after that, he was a printer who typeset magazines and books on his linotype machine. Those skills were passed on to Alan and his brothers, who all worked for Telecom Australia, on more advanced signals (communications). After studying electronics, communications, and computing at college, and building and repairing all kinds of electronics, Alan switched to programming and team building and management.

He has a fascination with shooting video footage and video editing, so watch out if he points his Canon 7d in your direction.

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