Faceoff

Let’s take a look at the president of Iran, Mahmood Ahmadinejad:

Ahmadinejad_comparison_1

That’s Mr. Ahmadinejad on the right. The question is: Is it also him on the left?

The man on the left is reported to be one of the Iranian hostage takers from 1979-1981, and it has long been rumored that Mr. Ahmadinejad was one of the hostage takers.

He has denied this. Understandably.  It would severely inflame the U.S. public against him if it were confirmed that we were dealing with one of the people who took our diplomats hostage twenty-eight years ago. It would significantly strengthen the national will to go knock over his regime.

Now the Russian press has unearthed the photo on the left, which bears a striking resemblance to Ahmadinejad.

DANIEL PIPES HAS THE STORY (CHT: Powerline).

As curious as I am to know whether Ahmadinejad is one of the hostage takers, I have questions about the picture. Specifically:

1) What is its provenance? How did the press get it? Was it published at the time it was taken? Can we look at hardcopies of it that date from that era? How do we know it’s not a fake? Apropos of that . . .

2) What can Photoshoppers determine about this? Has Ahmadinejad’s face been pasted onto the body of a hostage-taker? Does the angle of his face match up with the angle of his head? Ahmadinejad would have been 23 in 1979. Does the gun-toter on the left look 23? If he did have bags around his eyes like that back then, why doesn’t he look a whole lot worse today?

3) If the picture isn’t fake, what can be determined by biometrics about whether he’s the same guy as Ahmadinejad?

4) If the picture is fake, who faked it, and what game are they playing?

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

24 thoughts on “Faceoff”

  1. Noses get larger as people age. Apparently we are expected to believe that Ahmadinejad had a 50 year old looking honker at the age of 25.

  2. Correct photo or not, didn’t the hostages, who had been in his presence for 444 days, say he is one of the hijackers? Why don’t we take the eyewitnesses’ account for it?
    Just wondering.
    –Ann

  3. If he did have bags around his eyes like that back then, why doesn’t he look a whole lot worse today?
    I think he does look a lot worse today.

  4. Correct photo or not, didn’t the hostages, who had been in his presence for 444 days, say he is one of the hijackers? Why don’t we take the eyewitnesses’ account for it?
    Just wondering.
    –Ann

    Yes, Bruce Laingen, the charge’ d’affaire of the embassy, first brought it to the attention of the press, that they are one and the same.

  5. The two posts above are mine. Last time this happened, I wrote down when my name disappeared. It was one week ago today. Guess it’s something that I’ll have to keep in mind for the future.

  6. “It would severely inflame the U.S. public against him ”
    I doubt it. We have very short memories. What passes for our media doesn’t really care so it won’t be in our faces day afte day.
    What would he care if the American public is inflamed? The American public is irrelevant to him. He is on a mission from Allah, after all.

  7. Prescinding from what terrorist acts one might have done 20 years ago (notice I said “prescinding”, not excusing; one can still go to hell for something one did 20 years ago if it is not repented of, so, prescinding from that), if one is currently the head of a terrorist state (assume “head” by sufficiently free choice, etc), doesn’t that make one a terrorist today?

  8. Do ears get bigger with time, too?

    Yes, actually, sometimes.
    FWIW, I looked at the larger version of the image up close in Photoshop. The earlier photo is of significantly lower image quality than the newer photo, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. There are jpg artifacts, but no definite visual evidence of tampering that I can detect.
    Which is only to say, if it’s Photoshop work, it’s good clean work — which of course does happen. I’d say examination of actual prints of this photo from the time (if any) are the only way I see to settle the question.
    IMO, if the photo is authentic, it’s a startling match, and apart from possible age considerations I would say it’s definitely the same guy.
    Regarding the question of how Mr. Ahmadinejad may or may not have aged: Surely Mr. Ahmadinejad and/or his family could produce photos from this timeframe that would help settle the question of what he looked like at the time?

  9. The picture is new, but this story has been going since before he was “elected”. I think he’s the same guy, but it doesn’t really matter. What he’s currently saying and doing is alarming enough for us to topple the regime. Because of the elecion, our hapless president, and Europe’s dhimmitude, we won’t and I expect mushroom clouds over Isreal, Iran and probably other places.

  10. Correct photo or not, didn’t the hostages, who had been in his presence for 444 days, say he is one of the hijackers? Why don’t we take the eyewitnesses’ account for it?
    Because eyewitness identification is notoriously unreliable. See the research of Elizabeth Loftus at the University of Washington. (I might also mention the example of John Demjanjuk, who was “positively” identified by former inmates of Treblinka as “Ivan the Terrible,” a guard who had abused them. It turned out that the identification was completely erroneous. The fact that he may have been a guard at Sobibor rather than Treblinka does nothing to validate the identification of those who were “sure” that he was the guy at Treblinka.)

  11. Someone alluded to this, but if we could get clear photos of each person’s ears, it could be determined if they are one and the same. Ears are very unique, and are often overlooked.

  12. I could see the Russians wanting to get the US more riled up over Iran, enough to make us do something rash. If the US got involved in another Iraq-like debacle, it would pretty much finish us off as the pre-eminent international power broker paving the way for Russia (if it can keep favorable ties to China) to become the true world power player. For better or worse, Britain has pretty much hitched its influence wagon to the US. It seems Russia is hitching its wagon to China, and a ploy like this could help derail the US.

  13. … If the US got involved in another Iraq-like debacle…
    I highly doubt that. Our current resources are already spread so thin as it is.

  14. The bags under the eyes could be from fatigue. Revolutions are tiring, and one doesn’t necessarily get one’s beauty sleep. That said, the “earlier” photo does *not* look 28 years younger to me. Of course, he could be one of those people who age but whose features never substantially change – you can always tell it’s them.
    I would not be inclined to trust eyewitnesses from almost 30 years ago; they’re unreliable enough when they’re fresh. However, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it turned out to be true that Ahmadinejad was involved in the hostage situation.
    What I wonder is: if Ahmadinejad denies having been involved, why doesn’t he just release a picture of him from that era to quell the nonsense? Although I suppose he may not have one, for any number of reasons.
    My final concern is this: even if it is Ahmadinejad in the picture, as far as I know it’s only “reported to be” one of the hostage-takers. He could have fought in the Iranian revolution without being involved in the attack on the embassy, and that would account for the weapon and fatigues.
    It’s a pretty thin rope to try to hang someone on, IMHO.

  15. Ditto on the above…
    maybe it is him and maybe it is not him.
    I know that I did some things 28 years ago that were very illegal and very stupid. I am not the same person that I was then.
    and I would be whistling dixie out of my nose with happiness if my picture today looked the same as it did my senior year in high school : )

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