Apparently, my previous article
on the famous "Situation Room" photo tapped a nationwide nerve. The
response ranged from some eye-opening tips on other photos to a few
perplexed criticisms as to the motivation for Photoshopping a Situation
Room photo.
The answer to that latter question can be summed up in one simple thought: To hide the truth. Obama was out golfing
while the OBL mission was unfolding, and the administration needed the
Situation Room photo op for public perception -- to give the illusion that he's presidential.
As a follow-up to the previous article,
a second "Situation Room" photo will be the target of discussion here.
For those who would like to download the image, a high-resolution
version can be found here. This White House Flickr link is a great place to check for high-resolution sizes of many of the White House photo sets released.
At first
glance, the image overwhelms the viewer with a massive backside of
Obama's jacket -- oddly oversized shoulders and arms supporting another small-head redux. Any more photos like this, and one might start speculating that Jeebs is the inspiration.
In all
fairness, the initial impression leads the eye to believe that the beige
fabric under the right armpit belongs to Robert Gates' pants (standing
near Obama on the right). However, if that were the case, then who would
be attached to the pant leg under the left armpit? It's not intuitively
obvious, and it takes the viewer a little time to eventually come to a
conclusion that these fabric strips are side panels built into the
jacket design. Maybe the New York Times found the presence of this fabric an odd distraction as well -- and the reason behind their cropped version.
Even with
this oddity solved, the image is not without significant problems.
Moving up the Iron Man-like shoulders to the blurry Jeebs-sized head,
zoom in for an extreme close-up of the right neck edge and ear. The
right edge of the neck is missing a small but important piece -- it
suffers a disappearing act as it approaches the jacket edge and displays a transparent gap (where a phone sitting on the desk can be seen through the neck).
The right ear
is also inconsistent along the defining edge. The top ear rim edge is
blurry but still clearly visible (similar to the left ear edge), but as
the eye travels down around the right ear edge, an abrupt chunk is taken
away from the outer ear rim, and the remaining pixel edge transition is
significantly sharper (less blurry) for the lower portion.
Shifting to a
different image section, it appears that there is a floating hand among
the Situation Room attendees. Just to verify that a body wasn't being
eclipsed by the folks in front, it seemed reasonable to obtain some
answers by examining the reflections in the monitors on the wall behind
them. By applying an image adjustment to lighten all the color values in
the monitors, the reflection detail becomes more pronounced and easier
to discern. Keep in mind that the adjustment applied to the monitors
will distort color values -- thus the shirt that appears white could be
the blue-shirted man seen in the photo. That said, the man in the
reflection has his hand in front -- near his chin -- not at his back.
The curvature of the fingers appears different from that of the floating
hand's, as well as the fact that it is a man in the reflection, while the floating hand displays feminine characteristics.
The
blue-shirted man standing in the room does not appear to be a match for
the man in the reflection. So if the reflection is not the blue-shirted
man, but rather an eclipsed individual, then where is the blue-shirted
man found in the reflection? Wouldn't he be seen in front of the
eclipsed individual (within the reflection)? Conversely, if the floating
hand does not match the reflected man's hand, then where in the room is
the reflected man (whose hand is near the chin)? Not to mention that
the body for the floating hand has still not been accounted for via the
reflection.
In case you
were wondering how the people in the room translate to the rear monitor
reflections, a capture is provided for your evaluation. Keep in mind
that the reflections are at angles similar to looking in a mirror and
viewing information at the opposing angle.
Shifting gears to the first "Situation Room" photo, found here, a few more problems were neglected in the last article.
Is there
another transparency issue when zoomed in tight to Gates' face?
Clinton's jacket pattern can be seen deep into Gates' pupil. The wisp of
hair induced transparency near Gates' forehead may be a contrived
attempt when contrasted with the stark clarity in Clinton's hair
(sitting next to Gates) and a similar contrived transparency near the
same wisp of hair found on Gates in the Obama "huge back" photo.
A dashed line in the capture shows the area that resembles a masking attempt to give a natural illusion.
A final note focuses on the blurred photo
in front of Hillary Clinton, in which the White House narrative offered
the explanation that the blur was necessary to hide sensitive material.
Fair enough. However, how is it that this supposedly sensitive document was obscured, while the binder sitting on Hillary's lap is left
untouched?
The first line printed at the top of the binder clearly states "TOP
SECRET CODEWORD NOFORN*" with a second line message "FOR USE IN WHITE
HOUSE SITUATION ROOM ONLY." Keep in mind that the codename for the OBL
mission was leaked as "Geronimo," so this is obviously a different
codeword. Is this another disturbing attempt to casually release
confidential information to our enemies? In light of numerous stories,
most recently the secret-under-the-radar program to release Taliban detainees
-- it's not hard to get the feeling that the mission of this
administration is to sabotage the safety and sovereignty of this nation
rather than protect it.
*Thanks to the many readers who informed us that NOFORN is code for "no foreign eyes allowed to read - Americans only"
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