Lawmaker Rejects US Apology, Asks Why FBI Used His Photo for Bin Laden Wanted Poster
An initially incredulous and now outraged Spanish lawmaker has rejected a United States apology and is demanding an investigation of the FBI’s admitted use of his digitally altered photographic image from a 2004 election photograph. It was the basis for a wanted poster of Osama bin Laden that was displayed on the Internet offering a reward of up to $25 million reward for information about the notorious al-Qaida leader.
But for his high profile as a member of his country’s communist-run United Left party, says Gaspar Llamazares, he fears he would have had little luck addressing the situation. Although the poster, which sought to show what bin Laden might look like today, has been taken down from a U.S. Department of State website, Llamazares wants assurances that it has been removed from FBI and other intelligence agency and airport files. And he also wonders why his photograph was selected for use in the project to begin with, reports the Associated Press. (An earlier Associated Press article provides additional details.)
The FBI says a forensic artist couldn’t find suitable photos of bin Laden and came across the Llamazares photo online in Google Images, the news agency explains. Llamazares questioned this explanation and wondered if the agency keeps files on leftists.
“Most likely an unknown citizen on stepping into an airport would have received a good fright, if not something worse,” he stated at a news conference today. “If this is how security against terrorism is guaranteed, whose hands are we in?”
If the U.S. response isn’t satisfactory, Llamazares says, he hasn’t ruled out legal action.
While the AP articles don’t describe any potential causes of action, law professor Jonathan Turley suggests in his Jonathan Turley blog that the situation could present grounds to seek damages for “an interesting misappropriation tort.” The celebrity status of the individuals involved and the alteration of the photograph might be potential defenses, he indicates.
Initially said by the FBI to be the result of a “cutting edge” technological process, the doctored photo of Llamazares was created with “a Web browser, Google Images and panorama stitching software,” reports the Post Partisan blog of the Washington Post.
Additional coverage:
National Times (Sydney Morning Herald, opinion): “Identity Theft”
