August 29, 2006

IS THERE ANYTHING PEOPLE *WON'T* SAY TO GET THEIR 15 MINUTES?

David Frum is talking about the Hezbollah Hundreds again. And he's talking out of his ass. For example:

Only one thing was missing--the thin wire security strip that runs from top to bottom of a genuine US$100 bill. The money Hezbollah was passing was counterfeit, as should have been evident to anybody who studied the photographs with due care.

I assume he's talking about the one single picture that shows a $100 bill with light passing through it, which I discussed in a previous post

As I said before, I don't think the picuture is clear enough to be definitive.

He goes on to brag about how "SnappedShots.com, MyPetJawa and Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs" pointed out the counterfeiting:

These [blog] sites magnified photographs and showed them to currency experts and detected irregularity after irregularity in the bills.

I'm calling bullshit. Other than the questionable "absence" of a security strip, there was nothing in any of the pictures I saw which indicated that those notes were counterfeit. American currency is subject to wide variations in ink color and seal placement, and all the notes I saw were within spec.

I'm putting out a challenge: if there's anyone who can point out any "irregularites" BESIDES the crispness of the notes, the security strip in that ONE picture, ink color, or seal placement, (all of which I address in the earlier post mentioned above) please bring it to my attention, I'll tell you whatever I can based on my considerable currency-handling experience.

And for heaven's sake, use direct URL's that work.

A final thought, because I want to be very clear on this point. I'm NOT saying these bills are genuine. I'm saying that I haven't seen enough evidence to declare them counterfeit. Unlike these so-called "currency experts" who are, in my opinion, simply taking advantage of the situation to gain a little ego-stroking from the media.

[Hat tip to reader Larwyn for pointing out Frum's article to me]

posted by Harvey on August 29, 2006 at 06:08 AM | Permalink | 14 Liars | TrackBack | Ponderings
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Sticky Notes exemplified on August 29, 2006 06:46 PM

I don't think I know anyone who has claimed the Hezbollah bills to be counterfeit. What I have seen is the posed question of suspicion and the examination of web pix, which at 72 dpi is pretty lousy reference. Then, for me, that spurred research on who might be responsible IF the money were found to be fake - possibilities of course Iran and Korea. That led to research on Supernotes, which Treasury and State has been pursuing.

But known supernotes smuggling or laundering may be an entirely different thread of counterfeiting than money that shows up in Lebanon.

For me, the question became one of hoping the MSM or people in position to obtain Hezbollah bills might raise this to a level of examination. (That's why I emailed Israeli bloggers, closer the situation.)

I know when I looked at a lot of bills on the Internet, I could make comments, about signatures but not about true authenticity.

The question was always - where did they get those crisp bills?

Harvey exemplified on August 29, 2006 10:34 PM

Looked to me like David Frum was claiming that the blogsphere had proven that the bills were fakes, flatly stating, "The money Hezbollah was passing was counterfeit".

And you're right about the important question: where's is coming from. There are two possible answers - they're making it themselves OR they have backing from folks who have hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) in cash just laying around, and prefer to spend it on supporting terrorists.

I'm not sure which answer is more disturbing.

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