Strange Anomalies in the Famous Situation Room Photo

[Marshall]

Strange Anomalies in the Famous Situation Room Photo

By Mara Zebest


Recently, the MSM were shocked by the news that a girlfriend in Obama's Dreams book was a composite. For many, such news comes as no surprise. The concept of a composite presidency certainly comes as no shock as someone who participated as a contributor and authored evidence presented at Sheriff Joe Arpaio's press conference on Obama's long-form birth certificate report. On the heels of these events -- and taking advantage of an anniversary of the bin Laden raid -- are recent campaign tactics to politicize the killing of Osama bin Laden. With the re-emergence of another round of gutsy call faux heroism regarding Obama's decision, it may also be a good time to revisit the famous "Situation Room" photo released by the White House. Is it Photoshopped? Like everything else Obama does to make a political point, is the photo a composite as well?
Beyond the obvious blurred photo in front of Hillary Clinton, are there other hints of manipulation? A Swedish paper makes the observation that Obama looks like a midget in the chair despite his six-foot-plus stature. When comparing the size of the surrounding people in the photo to Obama, the photo certainly gives the impression that Obama's head (or possibly the entire body) was placed into the photo and resized a tad too small. And as a side-note observation: why is everyone in the room dressed in work attire -- as if they went to work that day -- except for Obama?
Compare the size of surrounding heads in the "Situation Room" photo to the size of Obama's head. Even if you use a perspective argument -- in which objects appear smaller at a greater distance -- then why are the faces behind Obama still larger? Marshall Webb's head is larger as well, and keep in mind that Marshall is sitting next to Obama (on the same plane).
Referring back to the "Situation Room" photo again, look at the difference in head size between Obama and Biden (in the "Situation Room" photo), and then contrast with differences in size from other photos found of Obama and Biden. The height and head shapes are comparatively similar in size for the vast number of photos seen of the president and VP.
Another observation focuses (no pun intended) on the eyes of everyone in the room. A large and overexposed sharpened image of the "Situation Room" can be viewed here that offers a clear glimpse into the various pairs of eyes. Follow the direction of the center of focus for all the surrounding faces in the room. When zoomed in closely, the eyes are clear and detailed for many of these faces. However, not only do Obama's eyes lack detail in this overexposed photo, but the direction of his glance appears to be pinpointing a higher plane than that of everyone else in the room. It was reported here that the famous picture was taken not in the situation room, but rather from a smaller conference room next to the situation room. A search for images of this conference room suggests that monitors are mounted on the wall just slightly above eye level when sitting -- which is consistent with the gaze level of the surrounding members in the photo.
Try this test: instead of zooming in close, try zooming out to a low level of the image, and notice a consistency in lighting and softness to the skin tones for the majority of faces in the room -- except for Obama, and two players standing behind Bill Daley. Let me offer a few additional and possibly problematic observations on these two individuals standing in the back. Their names are Anthony Blinken, national security advisor to Vice President Biden, and Audrey Tomason of the National Counterterrorism Center. The Daily Beast speculates on the reasons for Tomason's presence in the photo as diversity balance so Hillary Clinton would not be the only woman in the room.
A similar observation could be made for the directional glance of the eyes for Blinken and Tomason, who appear to be glancing on a different vector path than the surrounding faces. The lighting for these two individuals appears off when taking into account how the light falls on many of the other characters in this iconic photo.
Judging by the light at the top of Bill Daley's head (who is standing in front of Blinken), it is possible that a light from overhead is glaring directly on top of Blinken. Having said that, Blinken and Tomason seem to have a different set of rules regarding how the light falls on their faces compared to their co-workers.
In addition, when zooming in close to examine the shirt area of Blinken, there appears to be some indistinct areas for a shirt so well-lit and strongly contrasted at the upper area of the torso. It is hard to determine if this could be due to image-editing or normal shadowing and light falloff.
However, a few more questions to ponder in regard to Tomason: if Tomason is standing behind Blinken, why do her hands rest in front of Blinken's shirt? And is there a watch on both wrists?
A close-up from the overexposed photo is also provided in which it is clearly visible that Tomason's hands are in front of Blinken's shirt and even appear to come out in front of Daley's jacket. While the lack of detail could be natural due to Tomason's position in the photo, both arms seem to mutate into odd or unrecognizable hand shapes.
What do you think? Photoshopped, or is my imagination simply on overload from too many composite stories emanating from the White House?
Mara Zebest is a graphic artist and co-author for a number of Adobe product books, including the Inside Photoshop series, which typically exceeded 1,000 pages and has been published in at least ten different languages around the world. She is also tech editor for numerous books for both Adobe and Microsoft products and has worked closely with the Cold Case Posse (CCP) for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) in providing evidence on Obama's forged birth certificate.

[Marshall]

The Illusion of Obama's Bin Laden Raid Situation Room Leadership

By Mara Zebest

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.

Obama's entire "Composite Presidency" and administration are orchestrated in this fashion. Not only is the photo's legitimacy in question, but so is the narrative illusion behind it. Obama knew of OBL's location for a year and refused to act. The CIA admits that there was "no live video feed," as implied by the iconic White House photo. It is anyone's guess what the captive audience was looking at, but it wasn't the OBL raid. It was recently reported that a highly lawyered CYA memo was drafted that made it clear that the military would take all blame for any errors, while Obama would claim all glory for successes. Not surprisingly, the real heroes seem to have a problem with this form of spiking the ball and using our brave SEALs for political gain. Why would Obama need to Photoshop the Situation Room photos? For the same reason behind everything else he does: to influence perception in which everything is about Obama.
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"
Mara Zebest is a graphic artist and co-author for a number of Adobe product books, including the Inside Photoshop series, which typically exceeded 1,000 pages, published in at least ten different languages around the world. She is also tech editor for numerous books for both Adobe and Microsoft products and has worked closely with the Cold Case Posse (CCP) for Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) in providing evidence on Obama's forged birth certificate.

[Marshall]

<H1>What 'Gutsy Call'?: CIA Memo Reveals Admiral Controlled bin Laden Mission</H1>





Today, Time magazine got hold of a memo written by then-CIA head Leon Panetta after he received orders from Barack Obama’s team to greenlight the bin Laden mission. Here’s the text, which summarized the situation:



Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault.

The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.


This, of course, was the famed “gutsy call.” Here’s what Tom Hanks narrated in Obama’s campaign film, “The Road We’ve Traveled”:


HANKS: Intelligence reports locating Osama Bin Laden were promising, but inconclusive, and there was internal debate as to what the President should do.


VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: We sat down in the Situation Room, the entire national security apparatus was in that room, and the President turns to every principal in the room, every secretary, “What do you recommend I do?” And they say, “Well, forty-nine percent chance he’s there, fifty-one … it’s a close call, Mr. President.” As he walked out the room, it dawned on me, he’s all alone. This is his decision. If he was wrong, his Presidency was done. Over.


Only the memo doesn’t show a gutsy call. It doesn’t show a president willing to take the blame for a mission gone wrong. It shows a CYA maneuver by the White House.


The memo puts all control in the hands of Admiral McRaven – the “timing, operational decision making and control” are all up to McRaven. So the notion that Obama and his team were walking through every stage of the operation is incorrect. The hero here was McRaven, not Obama. And had the mission gone wrong, McRaven surely would have been thrown under the bus. [with Odumbo, the buck stops over there! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!]


The memo is crystal clear on that point. It says that the decision has been made based solely on the “risk profile presented to the President.” If any other risks – no matter how minute – arose, they were “to be brought back to the President for his consideration.” This is ludicrous. It is wiggle room. It was Obama’s way of carving out space for himself in case the mission went bad. If it did, he’d say that there were additional risks of which he hadn’t been informed; he’d been kept in the dark by his military leaders.


Finally, the memo is unclear on just what the mission is. Was it to capture Bin Laden or to kill him? The White House itself was unable to decide what the mission was in the hours after the Bin Laden kill, and actually switched its language. The memo shows why: McRaven was instructed to “get” Bin Laden, whatever that meant.


President Obama made the right call to give the green light to the mission. But he did it in a way that he could shift the blame if things went wrong. Typical Obama. And typical of him to claim full credit for it, when he didn’t do anything but give a vague nod, while putting his top military officials at risk of taking the hit in case of a bad turn.

[JD Barleycorn]

I have to go back to the beginning; was the war room picture even necessary? No, it was not. It was a PR move and added nothing to the moment. It was not a public moment like Bush at Ground Zero but a contrived "show off" event.

I don't know about all the photo hocus pocus but from mine own experience I am sure that there was an operational commander who gave the final order and it was probably not given from the White House.

[Iaintliein]

Hey, it's a picture on the internet. . . it must be real.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

[Old-T]

Originally Posted by Iaintliein

Hey, it's a picture on the internet. . . it must be real.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

That Darth was actually supposed to be in SW 7-9, the part that was never completed. After Vader died he became the next villian in line. Too bad, some of the out takes looked pretty impressive as he fought with Luke's grandson.

[Guest050715-1]

Everybody knows Obama is truthy. My only surprise is why he would do something like dropping himself into the photo. Oh, that's right. He gets away with EVERYTHING because the press won't report on him correctly or fairly.

[Doove]

I guess being a birther just isn't quite stupid enough for y'all.

[Marshall]

CLAP IF YOU THINK ODUMBO WILL LOSE THE ELECTION.......

CLAP IF YOU THINK DOOFUS DREAMS ABOUT RECEIVING ANAL FROM ODUMBO.........









HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

[JD Barleycorn]

Happy trails Doove

[Doove]

Originally Posted by OliviaHoward

Everybody knows Obama is truthy. My only surprise is why he would do something like dropping himself into the photo. Oh, that's right. He gets away with EVERYTHING because the press won't report on him correctly or fairly.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast....-them-all.html

I think it's about time you got over it, Olivia.

Your Hillary inspired Obama hatred is making you look foolish.

[CuteOldGuy]

How do you explain you continuous foolish look, Doofe?

[Fast Gunn]

In all this yammering about trivialities like reflections in a mirror, have you all forgotten the core truth of the moment when the photo was taken?

A notorious terrorists who had evaded captured for 12 years was finally located by the administration of President Obama.

He was found in a different country other than where he was expected and the country was not friendly toward the United States, but they outwardly claimed to be an ally which further complicated the mission.

If you mock him like this even though he succeeded, what would you be saying had he failed? He knew the risks and yet he staked his reputation for the good of the country even if it might destroy him in the process.

That is courage of the highest quality.

President Obama made the difficult call of sending in the Seals and they killed the high-value target. He planned this intricate operation with micrometer precision and it was executed perfectly.

. . . That is what you should focus on and give thanks for instead of looking for any goofy little things that you hope will distract from what this difficult mission accomplished.

[IIFFOFRDB]

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

In all this yammering about trivialities like reflections in a mirror, have you all forgotten the core truth of the moment when the photo was taken?

A notorious terrorists who had evaded captured for 12 years was finally located by the administration of President Obama.

He was found in a different country other than where he was expected and the country was not friendly toward the United States, but they outwardly claimed to be an ally which further complicated the mission.

If you mock him like this even though he succeeded, what would you be saying had he failed? He knew the risks and yet he staked his reputation for the good of the country even if it might destroy him in the process.

That is courage of the highest quality.

President Obama made the difficult call of sending in the Seals and they killed the high-value target. He planned this intricate operation with micrometer precision and it was executed perfectly.

. . . That is what you should focus on and give thanks for instead of looking for any goofy little things that you hope will distract from what this difficult mission accomplished.

Fucking photo shopped Odoucheebag bullshit...LOL

[WTF]

We all get it, some of you hate Obama as much as some on the left hated/hate Bush.

Both sides look idiotic if you ask me.

Fuck both sides sound idiotic even if I'm not asked!