MYSTERY SOLVED-Fake photo of Baghdad used to bolster GOP's claims-THREAD 2

[kpete]

Kaloogian fib photo mystery solved.
by jem6x
Wed Mar 29, 2006 at 09:56:08 AM PDT

I'm sure we are all aware of the puzzle posed by Anthony LA. Where was that photo taken?

Here is the answer.

The photo is of a bustling street in the Istanbul suburb of Bakirkoy.




This photo was taken by a photographer named Faruk, a member of the wowturkey.com community, and posted there. Check out his portfolio.

(Note: I grabbed a copy of his photo to put onto flickr.com, just to avoid stealing bandwith from the wowturkey.com site and avoid Dailykos traffic crashing that site. I do not intend to steal Faruk's intellectual property. He takes great pictures, by the way!)

For comparison purposes, here is the photo Kaloogian claims he or his staff took in Baghdad:


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/29/11569/6885

[Gman]

1. the pic doesn't show

what's going on inside those buildings and rooms. Looks can be very deceiving.

[TahitiNut]

2. Who cares? It's a city in Turkey, not Baghdad.

Whatever might be going on inside, it has nothing to do with Baghdad. :shrug:

[onehandle]

26. What!? What are you saying exactly? nt

[yellowcanine]

50. I think he just forgot the sarcasm smiley.

[RazzleDazzle]

61. Someone should post a link to Thread 1 (KPete -- you shoulda)

[npincus]

3. Kaloogian campaign posts new "Baghdad" market photo:

[DrDebug]

7. That's more like it. It has that bombed to rubble feeling

and the tall fences are more accurate as well. The building in the back used to be Saddam's swimming pool.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

30. very funny!

:)

[pinniped]

57. Kaloogen's pic of another Baghdad marketplace....

will be Trajan's market.

[stop the bleeding]

4. IS THIS A GOOD IDEA???????

see this link please

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=783285&mesg_id=783892

pretty please


I posted this on the tail end of thread#1 -

[kpete]

5. Give me instructions

& I will comply



seriously stop the bleeding

let me know

[stop the bleeding]

9. the thread would have to start as a request of sorts for all

available REAL photos of Baghdad to be sent to different email addresses.

ie: Kaloogian's office, Keith Olberman at Countdown and the local media that is in the same area as Kaloogian's office.

The instructions would have people send the photos to all emails on the list simulataneously/copying each other.

That way Kaloogian will see that MSM and local media has it and vice versa, by virtue of the copying technique I'm betting that someone at the end of one of those emails will be forced to respond.

the more emails the better but we don't want to make it too hard for people.

Does this sound like a workable idea or is it a waste of time?

[kpete]

10. Trust me

The e-mailing is getting done

This story is literally EVERYWHERE Now

Kaloogian has pulled his sight --- He smells the blood...(excuse the reference to blood)

I just sent the whole thread to Olbermann

I will await further instructions...

Peace

[Blue_In_AK]

40. I thought he had pulled the site, too

because it hung up for so long, but I walked away for about 15 minutes and when I came back, it was up, and the photo was there. Maybe he's getting too many hits to keep up with.

[meegbear]

6. Look at post #43 ...

when it's posted here. :rofl:

[TahitiNut]

8. Everybody knows this is what a downtown Baghdad street looks like.

:evilgrin:

[npincus]

11. NEW Kaloogian "Baghdad" photo! See Iraqis Celebrate their Freedom!

[LouisianaLiberal]

12. Check Elehhhhna's thread.

Insult Comic Dog has apparently found the exact corner. His picture has much more detail, and there seems to be no question that it is the same corner.

[doublethink]

13. Bakirkoy, Istanbul by way of The Kos website ......

this was just posted on the bottom of your original thread by InsultComicDog ........ guess someone at KOS found it!

[myrna minx]

14. Gawd...these folks wouldn't tell the truth about what they had for

breakfast. Wonderful research all! :bounce: :bounce:

[Karenina]

15. What AMAZES me

is that they don't seem to believe their LIES will be exposed! :shrug:

[gatorboy]

17. Kinda shows their racism.

They think if they post a pic with a few brown people thrown in, no one will question it.

[myrna minx]

58. I know. Whenever they are called on their lies, they are

completely stunned. :rofl:

[Karenina]

59. And NOW Kaloogian, using GOP SOP

is blaming it all on a "staffer." :eyes:

[Craig3410]

16. Top 10 Conservative Idiot #2!

After Card, of course.

I know you're reading, EarlG. :D

[VOX]

18. *Another* Kaloogian photo: Saddam AND Osama in downtown Baghdad!!!

[pacalo]

55. I love that picture!

[Fleshdancer]

19. Kaloogian owes Americans an explanation.

It would be one thing if he mistakingly labeled a pic as Baghdad, but that's not what happened. He deliberately lied with the bogus description of how calm the streets of Baghdad are. He deliberately lied about the media's portrayal. Our soldiers face real danger everyday on the real streets of Baghdad. Crap like this isn't funny. The man is busted and now he needs to explain himself.

[BuyingThyme]

24. He is lying in order to murder more American troops.

It's apparently the Republican way.

[DS1]

20. What does this prove?

[stop the bleeding]

22. that Kaloogian lied

and he is totally busted.


Why in the F**k does Kaloogian hate America so much?

[DS1]

28. Not enough proof for me

You can slice up his posted image all you want, but remember that Iraq was/is a lot more westernized than people here are assuming.

Roman alphabet store names proves nothing.

[Dr. Death]

31. See above - we now have the actual street corner in Istanbul

We're not arguing that Baghdad isn't westernized, but that was a picture of Turkey, not Iraq.

[Ravenseye]

32. Read through the first thread

The images show, with other photos from that location, that the photo was taken in Istanbul Turkey. There really isn't any dispute about that now. He was contacted and asked directly about that specific photo and he lied and said that it WAS Baghdad.

That ain't Baghdad, he lied about it. Done.

[mitchtv]

64. It just came to me

he doesn't kow the difference ( either stupid or a liar,50-50)
oh yeah , both

[spuddonna]

33. How bout a comparison of the two pictures?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=776401&mesg_id=784252

The image was also captioned with text basically deriding the media for portraying Baghdad as being in much worse shape than it really was, as was evidenced by the photo he was presenting.

[jseankil]

35. I sent the photo to a friend from Turkey, he's confirmed the photo

was taken in turkey.

[stop the bleeding]

39. re-read the threads and posts on this

Kaloogian lied flat out all of the proof is there and this isn't about photo editing.

It is about decieving the American people meanwhile Iraqis and soldiers are dying.

He lied now the MSM must make him pay.

[LeftHander]

41. Write it on a nail and pound it into your effing head....

That picture is NOT FUCKING IRAQ as claimed.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[alcibiades_mystery]

45. DS1: Check the two pictures

They are clearly of the same corner.

Now, Kaloogian claims his picture was taken in Baghdad.

The other picture was found independently on the internet on a site called wowturkey, and claims to be a photograph of a suburb of Istanbul. Note that the photographer of the independent photograph has 1) numerous other photographs of Turkey, 2) no dog in this fight. Note also that he probably wouldn't be taking photos in Baghdad and calling it Turkey, now would he.

[DS1]

47. Yep, I didn't notice that

I didn't believe seeing Western type signs in "Iraq" was proof that it wasn't, and unlike some people around here I don't immediately believe what others are posting.

:hi:

[alcibiades_mystery]

49. The initial argument wasn't that there were "Western style signs"

It was that these were specifically Turkish signs, which is another matter altogether. I of course would believe there are some Western style signs in Iraq. I'd find it harder to believe that the Iraqis now indicate the location of a market in Turkish. The first is globalization. The second would be the unlikely globalization of Turkish language, a more dubious proposition.

But, at least you're big enough to say that you were wrong, even if you did manage to congratulate yourself and insult others in the process. Congrats.

[Dr. Death]

53. It wasn't that we all immediately believed the postings,

it was that the postings included facts showing it was Turkey. The language was not just an example of the use of a western alphabet (like the signs written in English for Coke or other products that you see in many parts of the world). Rather, it was specifically Turkish, as I and others here who know something of Turkey and Turkish pointed out.

I'm sorry that people jumped on you, but it doesn't seem that you really read the facts presented.

Peace.

[Dr. Death]

54. Deleted - double post.

Sorry.

[kpete]

34. Its everywhere

[kpete]

38. Everywhere

its everywhere...

[BurtWorm]

23. It proves, maybe, that there is a wormhole in Baghdad that lets out

in a suburb of Istanbul. Cool, huh? :thumbsup:

[Fleshdancer]

27. Oooh, Middle Eastern wormholes! That explains a lot....

where's the missing $9 billion? wormhole.

where are the WMD? wormhole. - btw, does this mean we have to bomb Turkey now??

where are the missing museum artifacts? wormhole.

where's the oil that was going to pay for reconstruction? wormhole.

Where's the armor for our troops? wormhole.

Where are the flowers the Iraqis were going to throw at our troops? wormhole.

Where's the freedom? wormhole.

It all makes sense now!

[BurtWorm]

37. Total sense.

It's so much easier being a winger. If the truth doesn't work for you, just make shit up!

:patriot:

[Fleshdancer]

44. and if you're not creative enough to make shit up...

hullucinogens could do the trick...which would actually explain Kaloogian's problem.

;)

[Raksha]

62. If you're not creative enough to make shit up...

but you have a few bucks, you can always hire a wingnut PR firm to make shit up for you! Don't let 'em get too careless and sloppy, though--there are some pretty sharp eyes in the blogosphere!

[Canuckistanian]

21. From the General:

[kayice]

25. I seen this one, feedback was 'no McDonalds' idiots.

[underpants]

29. I have to ask- is that considered attractive to people?

Seriously a fast food strip? THAT is what passes for being "great" these days?

Wow we really do need more vacations in the country.

[nonconformist]

36. EXCELLENT research!

Damn it all, this is one of the reasons I LOVE DU so much! *wipes tear*

Great job!

[kpete]

42. Under DOS attack (Huh?)

Under DOS attack
by kos
Wed Mar 29, 2006 at 10:50:53 AM PDT
We are currently being hit with a Denial of Service attack. We're got lots of people fighting the attack and working to get the site back up. Thank you for your patience.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/29/125054/349

[yellowcanine]

52. I have noticed problems on DU also just now. Empire striking back?

[Rainscents]

43. BUSTED!!!!

Great job on investigating this!

[Deb]

48. I smell another TOPTEN!

WOOT! Wonderful job, just amazing DUers here.

[JHB]

51. Has Kaloogian made any statements now that he's busted?

Anything beyond still asserting it really was taken in Iraq?

[caligirl]

56. TPM has this up now. Think he blames a staffer, not Russo and Marsh

etc.

DOD seems to have funded the Truth Tour
http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=78

[lostexpectation]

60. Wha thas the photographer got to say about it

So kooligan said they took the photos and the staffer made a mistake of picking the wrong one from his bundle of photos of his trip, when was the photo taken, who took it, did they have permission to use it, what does the photogrpaher on wowturkey have to say about this?

[Imagevision]

63. repugs> phoney photo's phoney elections phoney wars!