Mainstream Media Runs Fake OBL Death Photo, Then Blames It On "Conspiracy Theorists"

Government says it has real images and video, still deciding whether to release them
by Steve Watson
Prison Planet
May. 02, 2011

The London Guardian has suggested that the fake image used by several British mainstream media websites this morning on their front pages was the work of “conspiracy theorists” who claimed it was genuine.

The Guardian notes that the image was used by the Mail, Times, Telegraph, Sun and Mirror websites, who picked it up from an online news site. The image was removed by the newspapers after it became apparent that it was a fake that had been online for over two years.

“Since then, however, the image has been claimed as genuine on a number of conspiracy forums and used to substantiate claims that the terrorist responsible for the 9/11 bombings had been killed.” Guardian writer Amelia Hill states.

Hill provides no link to the forums she is referring to, or the “conspiracy theorists” that suggested it was genuine.

The Guardian’s live blog speculated whether the image was real when it was first used this morning, where as this website, Prisonplanet.com, the “conspiracy theorists”, immediately reported it to be completely fake.

Indeed, after we reported it was fake, the news spread like wildfire on Twitter and led directly to the removal of the image by all the mainstream sources that had used it.

The image is a crude photoshop composite of two different images. The composite has been used in several articles over the past two years, the very purpose of many of which was to highlight the fact that multiple experts and credible figures were on record as believing Bin Laden to be already long dead.

This sorry saga once again demonstrates how the corporate dinosaur media has been completely surpassed by the alternative media and the new social media.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government says they have pictures of Bin Laden’s body and are considering whether and when to release them. According to The Los Angeles Times:

During the operation, a photo of his face was transmitted to analysts, who confirmed the identification.

According to Pentagon officials, photos of Bin Laden’s dead face do exist but those widely distributed on the Internet are fake. At some point, if only to convince die-hard Bin Laden followers, officials are expected to release a corpse photo, as has been done in the past when famous villains such as Che Guevara and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were killed or captured. Additionally, such special ops are typically videotaped by mini-helmet cams to document a sensitive mission and assist in debriefing and future training.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.