Category: Military

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November 2008
The Fake General Dunwoody
When Ann Dunwoody became the first four-star general in the American military, the Army released a doctored photo of her to the media.
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November 2008
Kim Jong-Il’s Shadow
Western media questioned whether this image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il had been doctored, but it appears not to have been.
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September 2008
U.S. Army Releases Doctored Photographs
Lacking an official photo of a deceased soldier, the U.S. Army instead released a doctored image to the media.
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July 9, 2008
The Missile Launcher Vanishes
The Iranian government pasted a missile into this photo, apparently in an attempt to conceal the failure of one of the missiles to launch.
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Controversy from June 2008
Cruise vs. von Stauffenberg
United Artists was mistakenly accused of altering an image of German officer Claus von Stauffenberg to make him appear to resemble Tom Cruise.
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Apr 2008
Charlton Heston’s Home Gun Collection
After Charlton Heston died in April 2008, a series of images began to circulate online, supposedly showing the actor's home gun collection. Heston was a well-known gun enthusiast. But the guns in the photos didn't belong to him. They were actually owned by attorney Bruce Stern, who died in 2007, after which most of his collection was auctioned off. It was one of the largest firearms collections ever to go up for auction.
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Found on the internet, early 2007
Suicidal Teens Welcome
The armed forces does not really actively recruit suicidal teenagers.
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August 5, 2006
Fake Smoke Over Beirut
A freelance photographer heightened the drama of this image distributed by Reuters by adding additional smoke.
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February 1, 2005
Islamic Hostage Action-Figure Hoax
Hostage "John Adam," whose photo appeared on internet bulletin boards used by Iraqi rebels, turned out to be a Cody action-figure doll.
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October 2004
Whatever It Takes
An ad released by Bush's 2004 presidential campaign showed a crowd scene from which the President had been digitally removed.
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Thanksgiving 2003
Trophy Turkey
This photo appears to show President Bush serving dinner to troops during a surprise visit to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day, 2003. The image was widely published and credited with helping the President's popularity rise in polls. But the image was later criticized for being misleadingly captioned, because newspapers failed to mention that Bush was holding a decorative centerpiece not intended for consumption. The troops were actually fed turkey from steam trays.
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Created March 29, 2003.
British Soldier in Basra
This digital composite slipped past the editors of the LA Times and ran on the paper's front page.
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Circulating online since Aug 2001
Helicopter Shark
Despite what this photo shows, a Great White shark has never attacked a helicopter in San Francisco Bay.
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July, 1991
Missing in Action
The photo made headlines when it surfaced in July 1991. It appeared to show three American fliers, who had been listed as missing during the Vietnam War, holding a sign with the date 25-5-90. The implication was that the men were still alive somewhere in south-east Asia. But a Pentagon investigation discovered it was actually a doctored version of a 1923 photograph of three Soviet farmers.
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May 2, 1945
Red Army Flag Over Reichstag
This photo was both staged and doctored in an attempt to create a Soviet version of the Americans' Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima image.
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May 8, 1943
The Master Race
The May 8, 1943 cover of the British illustrated magazine Parade showed an unkempt, dour-looking German soldier with the satirical caption, "Master Race." But the man wasn't actually a German soldier. The photo was actually a piece of British government propaganda. The photographer later admitted the man was "the ugliest Arab they could find in the streets of Cairo... whom they dressed up in a sort of uniform."
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August 1942
The Nazi Air Marker Hoax
The U.S. Army press office released pictures supposedly showing "secret markers" placed by fifth-columnists in rural areas of the east coast to guide Nazi bombers toward military targets. But it turned out the "markers" had been investigated by the Army, and had been judged to be entirely innocent patterns on the ground. The release of the photos and the claim of their sinister meaning was attributed to "over-zealous army press-agentry."
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September 5, 1936
The Falling Soldier
Despite allegations that Robert Capa staged this famous war photo, historical research shows that he did not.
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