July 17, 2008

Taliban/AP Use Same Cameraman?

A "new" video released by the Taliban's Ummat Studios shows two alleged American spies kidnapped in Afghanistan and then taken over the border and murdered by Pakistani Taliban sympathizers last month. The two were accused of helping the U.S. in an airstrike in Damadola, near the border, which killed several Taliban leaders. The crowed shouted Allahu Akbar.

However, the video released by Ummat Studios is identical to video released earlier by the Associated Press.

Look at these two screen grabs. The first is from a CNN International news report from late June of this year, the original video (seen here thanks to Kafir) is credited to the Associated Press (for instance, see AP marked images here). The second is a screen grab from the "new" Ummat Studios video. The two are obviously the same. I've stretched the image from CNN to match the dimensions of the image from the Taliban video.

I'd make an animated GIF, ala Charles Johnson, but I'm just not talented in that area. [Update: Thanks to Lizaroid Flying Dutchman for making the animated gif below]

So, what's the explanation here? Since the AP obviously had the video before the Taliban, we have a few possibilities.

1) The Taliban simply stole the AP video.
2) Whoever took the video sold (or gave) it to both the AP and the Taliban.

I'm leaning toward #1: the Taliban simply stole an AP video then added some background music, some subtitles, and their own watermark. There's some other evidence on the video that suggests this (you'll spot it pretty quickly as soon as I get the thing up at Liveleak).

Will the AP sue the Taliban for copyright infringement or might that spoil the otherwise splendid relationship the company has with the internationally recognized terror group?

Last question: since the Taliban obviously had their own guy there to record the murders (that's a camcorder they guy in the left foreground is holding), why did they have to use the AP's video? I think the answer is ovious: whoever is now in charge of Ummat Studios is not in the same physical location as the Taliban who murdered these two.

It also tells us what we've long known: the Tailban are knee deep in their own bullshit.

There is also an alternative #3 not mentioned above and which, in this particular case, seems like a longshot: the AP stringer who took the video also works for the Taliban.

Thanks to Howie for noticing the "similarities".

UPDATE: The video was rejected at Liveleak as already posted. Does any one see it there or is this just BS?