-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Fixing a Photo to Fit a Policy By J. Michael Waller The Defense Department appears to have doctored a surveillance photograph as part of the Clinton policy to go easy on Russia � leaving a wounded U.S. Navy officer high and dry. A recent CNN report alleged that the Defense Department misled the public with an altered videotape of a U.S. attack on Yugoslavia. It fizzled when the Pentagon attributed the error to a digital-compression process designed to allow intelligence analysts to review combat footage quickly. �The product was presented as the intelligence analyst would normally see it, and that is not a manipulation,� Pentagon spokesman P.J. Crowley claimed. While that seemed to end the story, the allegation of manipulation has revived questions about another image the Pentagon released to the press. At issue is a Navy intelligence photo of a Russian spy ship believed to have fired a laser at a Canadian military helicopter, wounding members of its Canadian-U.S. crew over the waters off Washington state in April 1997. The photo, as released by the Defense Department, differs markedly from the original taken by the wounded U.S. Navy intelligence officer aboard the helicopter: Details that Navy imagery analysts interpreted as a laser beam had been removed from the official photo. The differences in the photographs, as well as a chain of policy decisions made by the Clinton administration to exculpate the Russian ship, and a Navy inspector-general�s, or IG�s, finding that the Navy photographer suffered reprisal for reporting the laser incident to Congress suggest that someone in the Defense Department doctored the version of the photograph that the Pentagon Office of Public Affairs released to the public. Secret Defense and State department documents obtained by the Washington Times show that senior Clinton-administration officials conspired to cover up the April 4, 1997, lasing of U.S. Navy Lt. Jack Daly and his Canadian pilot, Capt. Patrick Barnes, by the Russian freighter Kapitan Man. The Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, apparently responding to political pressure, retaliated against Daly for pursuing the matter with Congress. Daly suffered laser burns to his right eye, as well as vision problems and severe headaches. Daly was the Navy�s foreign-intelligence liaison officer in Esquimalt, British Columbia, heading a joint U.S.-Canadian helicopter-surveillance operation against Russian, Chinese and other spy ships operating in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates British Columbia from Washington state, and in Puget Sound, the site of major U.S. nuclear ballistic-missile submarine and aircraft-carrier bases. Daly didn�t realize he had been wounded by a laser, or �lased,� until he returned to Esquimalt after photographing Kapitan Man and handed his Kodak DCS-460 digital camera to Chief Petty Officer Scott Tabor, a highly trained U.S. Navy imagery analyst on base. Tabor processed the photos and discovered on frame 16 a bright red spot, with a yellow halo and white core, emanating from the port side running light on the bridge of Kapitan Man. Tabor showed the photo to Daly and urged him to get immediate medical attention. An initial medical evaluation, and months of subsequent tests by the U.S. military�s top experts on laser eye injuries, confirmed laser burns on Daly�s retina. Side-by-side comparisons of frame 16 and the photograph released by the Pentagon, labeled frame 85, reveal the changes. (The numbering discrepancy is explained by the way the digital camera, which can take up to 52 pictures at a time, numbers the frames as they are downloaded to a computer.) Both images first were published in October on the Website of Reader�s Digest magazine. The photo on the right (at the top of p. 25) is the original as shot by Daly and analyzed by Tabor. It was taken at about noon under clear, sunny conditions, and the colors of the water, sky and ship match the other photos on the string. A bright red light is shown emanating from a black recessed panel just below the bridge. Enlargement of that part of the photo shows a whitish core and a yellow halo � indicating that it is not a normal running light from a low-watt bulb shining through a heavy glass lens. Daly testified before a congressional panel that Tabor interpreted the anomaly as a laser beam. A secret military memorandum to the Canadian minister of national defense, obtained by Insight, states: �The analysis eliminated the possibility that the light source was benign, e.g., port running light and suggests a red laser produced the flash shown on the photo.� That conclusion, along with the laser burns on Daly�s and Barnes� eyes, led Canadian and U.S. authorities to conclude that Kapitan Man fired a laser at the helicopter and wounded the crew. The State Department revealed in May 1997 that it had filed a vigorous diplomatic protest with Moscow. But after a secret policy decision by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Ambassador James Collins and others, the administration attempted to sweep the matter under the rug. The official line immediately changed. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon told reporters at a May 15, 1997, briefing in response to a Times story, �Upon examination, many naval officers believe that the red dot is the port running light.� ONI conducted an internal investigation that did anything but back up its wounded officer, and let the Russian ship off the hook. On releasing sections of the ONI report and the doctored frame 85 on June 26, Bacon stated conclusively, �The Navy has determined that this was a running light � a port running light. The starboard running light, which is green, is over on the other side. So they rejected this picture as indicative of a laser.� How did the running light, in the view of the Pentagon, morph from conclusively being not a running light and probably a laser, to precisely the opposite in just two months? ONI imagery analysts are afraid to speak, even on background. Tabor is at sea and has indicated through intermediaries that he is unwilling to talk to reporters. Insight attempted to interview two ONI imagery analysts, but both refused out of fear that the Navy would retaliate against them. Other knowledgeable Navy sources interviewed by Insight say that honest differences of opinion could exist among imagery analysts about whether the light anomaly is indeed a laser flash, though the U.S. Army Medical Research Detachment at Brooks Air Force Base reproduced the image almost exactly on Daly�s digital camera by using a helium neon laser. Even so, there is no disputing that the photograph released by the Pentagon was altered to remove the telltale yellow and white pixels. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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