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FBI admits photofit of Laden had Spanish features

Sunday, January 17, 2010
MADRID: A Spanish lawmaker was horrified to learn that the FBI used an online photograph of him to create an image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like today.

The image using Gaspar Llamazares' photo appeared on a wanted poster updating the U.S. government's 1998 photo of the al-Qaida leader.

FBI spokesman Ken Hoffman acknowledged to the Spanish newspaper that the agency used a picture of Llamazares taken from Google Images.

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 media.

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.

Llamazares, former leader of the United Left party, was elected to Spain's parliament in 2000. The photograph of him used to make the wanted poster originally appeared on posters for his 2004 general-election campaign.
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