March 29, 2006
[Updated 1:26pm]
I love this story as it combines three of my favorite things: the speed
of the internet, the power of individuals working together, and
exposing bullcrap from idiots.
Background: On Tuesday, March 28, San Diego Republican Howard Kaloogian posted the following photo and caption on his election campaign website:
Downtown Baghdad
We took this photo of dowtown [sic] Baghdad while we were in Iraq. Iraq
(including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people
believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence
occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it -- in part
because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight
terrorism.
If that last sentence made you do a 
, you're not alone.
Intelligent folks on the internet (read: liberals 
) collectively pooled their skepticism and wondered if the photo was a fake.
Clues cited include the lack of Arabic on the signs, the
bare-shouldered woman in the foreground, and a taxicab that didn't
match Iraqi taxi colors.
After some virtual collaboration from eagle-eyed skeptics, the real location of the photograph was identified less than 24 hours later as Bakirkoy, Istanbul. Someone even took a photograph of the same intersection for comparison:
This photo was taken by a photographer named Faruk, a member of the wowturkey.com community, and posted there.
Or as the kids would say, Kaloogian got PWN3D! 
For those interested in following the virtual sleuthing involved, Wikipedia has an entry on the incident, including links to various forum threads where the analysis was performed.
As of this writing, there's no word yet on whether or not Mr.
Kaloogian has admitted to the hoax, or if he's even got the decency to
take down the photo (and slam against honest journalists) from his web
site. Given the shamelessness of the typical Republican politician
these days, though, I wouldn't hold my breath...
[Updated 10:56am] Uruknet.info has a neat photo showing all the clues in Kaloogian's original photo that exposed the fake "Baghdad" photo.
[Updated 1:26pm] Someone finally contacted Kaloogian, and he blames the webmaster for the fake photo. No word on who he'll blame for the "journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism" snark.
