Bert (of Bert and Ernie) and Osama Bin Laden

[Gary Ashwill]

It appears that the photos are genuine.  It looks like whoever made the
posters in Bangladesh downloaded bin Laden photos from the Internet, and one
of them happened to be a photoshopped image of an angry-looking Bert next to
Osama.  They just pasted the picture, Bert and all, onto their poster,
whereupon it showed up in Reuters and AP photos of the demo...

Gary Ashwill

Here's one of the originals: Bert's a little hard to see, but he's there,
whispering into Osama's left ear:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/nm/20011005/wl/imdf05102001094431a.html

This is the best story so far, with a much better image:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,36218,00.html
Best quote: "When asked about Bert's current whereabouts, however, the
spokeswoman replied: 'No comment.'"

Another mainstream story:
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47450,00.html

Here's where the whole mystery was unraveled:
http://www.lindqvist.com/bert.php

Some discussion:
http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/11284

And a great picture of Osama Bert Laden!
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/mostwanted/index.html