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    The Cutline

    Iran news alters missile test image to include ‘Star Wars’ character

    By | The Cutline – Mon, May 7, 2012

    (Mehr News/The Atlantic)

    Iran's Mehr News Agency used a blatantly altered image to illustrate a story downplaying its ballistic missile test program. The Atlantic Wire first reported on the digitally enhanced image--which includes the "Star Wars" character Jar Jar Binks--after it was published Friday on the agency's website.

    As Atlantic Wire pointed out, Friday was also the day "Star Wars" fans celebrated the 35th anniversary of the film's release.

    Iran has a history of photo enhancing its missile images. In 2008, it released a photo of a missile test that included an extra missile--"a point that had not emerged before the photo was used on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites."

    And the image Mehr used on Friday is old--first appearing online in 2008 and accompanying a story about Iran's missile photo-enhancing failures.

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