February 07, 2005
ActionFigureGate Continues
SITE Institute currently has a story up about a message board member who takes credit for the "ActionFigureGate" hoax where a G.I.Joe-type doll was used in a particularly lame "hostage" attempt last week.
According the SITE, the hoaxer wrote :
In the name of God, the Most Merciful and Most Compassionate,The hoaxer, who identifies himself as "al-Iraqi4," apparently includes a picture showing him setting up the famed picture.Soldier John Adam is [only] a toy.
I am a 20-year old Iraqi young man. I am unarmed, independent and do not belong to any party or group. I apologize to all the parties and everyone, for I meant nothing by that [no harm].
The picture was a scheme that I made up with a toy that I bought with $5.
Today I am announcing that this news was made up, and that the picture was of a toy that I worked on with the help of some children.
I cannot provide any information about me because, as I mentioned earlier, I am unarmed, and any information about me might jeopardize my life and the lives of my family [members].
My apologies to everyone.
The problem is that this picture appears to be a fake as well.
If you look at the wall and floor in the original picture, you'll see what appears to be an unpainted wall and floor, that both appear to be made of rough concrete that is mostly tan in color.
If you look at the SITES photo, you see a floor that is of gray concrete and a wall that has been painted white.
Also, you will note that the size of the two banners are different (the original is almost square, the SITES photo is more rectangular) and that the Arabic writing is significantly shorter on the original.
This admission appears to be as much a hoax as the original story.
Update: Added to OTB's Beltway Traffic Jam.
Update 2: There are also a hint in the text itself that leads me to beleive this was faked, but I only thought about it just now. The poster claimed that he paid for it in dollars ($). The last I checked, the monetary unit of Iraq is the dinar, not the dollar.
Update 3: The imposter claims that he is not part of any group... so how does he have posting rights on a known militant web site?
