snapped shot

Notice: This story was first reported by Bob Owens over at Confederate Yankee. He's placed an inquiry with his contacts at the Associated Press, but at time of writing, has not heard back from them yet.

A blogger over at the Virginia College Republican Federation has raised some questions about the truthfulness of this AP photograph (alternate angle here). I don't know if I'm totally convinced yet, but if any of y'all have experience with the standard techniques for removing bullets from a patient's arm, I'm definitely open to hearing your thoughts.

Here's a real close crop of the area in question. Hopefully, this is just enough of the picture to show you what we're talking about, without angering the angry mob of lawyers. (Oh, and if you're from the aforementioned mob and have a problem with this, just let me know, and I'll fix it for you.)



Of course, the truly important thing in this scenario is what I've bolded in the caption above. A bullet was most likely fired. It appears to have hit a bystander. It is not, however, known where the bullet came from, which means that the blame can't be immediately laid on the U.S. Army and its Iraqi allies.

(And for the record, I'm very glad to see that the Associated Press didn't start by repeating such baseless allegations!)

Update: I can comfortably say that upon review of the alternate angle, Archimedes' point #10 is total bunk. And while the crop on the alternate shot is too tight to say for sure, I'd suspect that there's also a good chance that #7 is, too—as there's most likely a surgical table around somewhere with instruments on it. In fact, if you look in the lower-right-hand corner of the main shot, you can see the legs of such a table.

It does look pretty crowded for a surgical operation, though. Perhaps that's another "cultural thing" about Iraq that I just don't understand?

I'd definitely love to hear from all you medical and weaponry experts about this.

Update: From the "How'd I miss that?" department, Bob Owens points out that he's already covered this story. His conclusion?

I suspect that this is less a case of "fauxtography" than a curious physiological response, but Associated Press cameraman Karim Kadim captured this photo of a Sadr City woman having a bullet removed from her forearm.

In his (e-mailed) opinion, the only points on Archimedes' list that are most likely valid are #1 and #7. (I'd argue about #7, since there may have been an incision that is obscured by the doctor's hand, but I'll admit that's not a very strong argument..)

Sorry I missed your earlier post, Bob!