Madrid, January 22: Spain wants Washington to publicise a mistake by the FBI which used the features of a prominent Spanish politician, who is critical of US polices, in a new computer-generated photo of Osama bin Laden, the foreign minister said Thursday.
The FBI’s contemporary representation of the Al Qaeda leader, with greying hair and a stubble and using the forehead and hair of Gaspar Llamazares, was visible for several hours on the most wanted “Rewards for Justice” website, before it was removed.
“We are in the process of asking the Americans,” to highlight the mistake, “and we hope they will do just that,” Miguel Angel Moratinos told the Cuatro news station.
He said Madrid had expressed its “perplexity” and “great surprise” to the new US ambassador to Madrid Alan B. Solomont.
FBI spokesman Ken Hoffman said Saturday that an FBI technician, acting on his own initiative, had taken the image of Llamazares from the Internet.
But the politician said the agency took the photo from its own files.
“I do not believe in coincidences and less so in the American secret services,” said Llamazares.
“I do not think (the FBI) came across my image by chance on Google. I am sure that in addition to incompetence, this is the sectarian and ideological use of law enforcement, the heat of a preventive war.”
“If leftists are part of the FBI files — North Americans, Europeans or from elsewhere — it’s not by chance or a laughing matter,” he told a news conference in parliament.
“My question is what would have happened had it not been Llamazares, if it had been a public official who is not well known. An anonymous citizen setting foot in an airport could have been scared because these people first shoot and ask questions afterwards.”
Llamazares said he had sent several letters to the ambassador, the FBI and the US Congress requesting an explanation.
“A Spanish member of parliament should have a response from the American deputies,” he said.
—Agencies