A closer examination of the photos released this morning from Cuba purportedly showing Fidel Castro after his surgery reveal some discrepancies that raise questions about their authenticity. Facial details do not match up with the most recent photos of the Cuban dictator before his recent hospitalization.

In the photo above, a large “age spot” on Castro’s right cheek near the cheekbone shown in a photo taken on July 26, 2006, at his last public appearance before his recent illness is missing in the photo alleged to have been taken yesterday. This raises questions about whether the photos released to the media this morning were actually taken weeks, or even months, in the past.

This is not the only discrepancy in the four photos released today.

Evidence of deliberate manipulation of one of the photos is below the fold.

Of even more interest is a close-up examination of the photo showing Fidel Castro apparently holding a copy of the Cuban newspaper Granma showing the front page of the edition of Saturday, August 12, 2006.

As mentioned in a previous article, a vertical line of pixels is cut off immediately beyond Castro’s right thumb and finger where they grip the newspaper. A comparison of pixelation around his hand where it is not over the newspaper, as well as pixelation around other objects in the same photograph, show that this is unusual. A similar sharp, horizontal line of demarcation can be seen above Castro’s right hand.

Similar sharp lines are seen around the thumb of his left hand, where it is in front of the newspaper as he holds it at the top. Such sharp lines usually indicate digital manipulation of the photo in a program such as PhotoShop.

One possible explanation is that the white background and black text of the newspaper front page may have been pasted in, partially crowding out pixels on the picture of Castro’s hand.

Also, the bottom of the front page of Granma as shown in the photo appears to have an unusually large amount of white space. That is noted in the photo shown here by the red rectangle. This raises the question of whether it is common for Granma to have this much wasted space at the bottom of its front page, or if this was an unusual occurence.

More updates as they become available.