New Digitally Altered bin Laden Actually a Spanish Politician

How'd you like to wake up one day and find yourself on a Most Wanted poster? Well, one politician in Spain isn't too amused to find out his likeness has been used to show what Osama bin Laden might look like these days.

A Spanish lawmaker was stunned and horrified to find out that the FBI used his photograph as part of a digitally enhanced image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like today.

Gaspar Llamazares of the United Left party said he would no longer feel safe traveling to the United States after his hair and facial wrinkles appeared on a wanted poster updating the U.S. government's 1998 photo of the al-Qaeda leader.

"I was surprised and angered because it's the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist," Llamazares said at a news conference Saturday.

"It's almost like out of a comedy if it didn't deal with matters as serious as bin Laden and citizens' security."

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo quoted FBI spokesman Ken Hoffman as acknowledging that the agency used a picture of Llamazares taken from Google Images for the digitally altered image of bin Laden.

The photo appeared on a U.S. State Department Web site rewardsforjustice.net, where a reward of up to $25 million is offered for bin Laden, wanted in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

Llamazares said he planned to ask the U.S. government for an explanation and reserved the right to take legal action. FBI headquarters in Washington did not respond immediately when asked for comment Saturday, requesting that questions be sent to them by e-mail.

The State Department told a reporter to call back Tuesday after the U.S. federal holiday on Monday.

Llamazares said he couldn't believe it when he was first told about the similarity, but he quickly realized the seriousness of the situation.

The 52-year-old politician said he would not feel safe traveling in the U.S. now, because many airports use biometrics technology that compares the physical characteristics of travelers to passport or other photographs.

"I have no similarity, physically or ideologically, to the terrorist bin Laden," he said.

They do share on characteristic - both are 52. Jose Morales, spokesman for Llamazares' party, told the Associated Press that no one in Spain had any idea that important security computer images such as the retouched bin Laden photo were built up from photographs of real people.

Llamazares, the former leader of his party, was elected to Spain's parliament in 2000.

Llamazares said it was worrying to see elite security services like the FBI resorting to such sloppy techniques, especially in the light of recent security alerts like the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airplane.

"It might provoke mirth, but it demonstrates that what we're seeing from security services isn't exactly recommendable," he said. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan frontier bordering Afghanistan.

But, uh, the system works or something.

Here's the actual Llamazares. Not exactly a dead ringer but they obviously Photoshopped his hair onto the "bin Laden" image. Good grief, are they really so lazy at the FBI they're copying images from Google?

Llamazares should also be concerned that someone might mistake him for Paul Krugman.