Gaspar Llamazares (right) says his face was the basis for the FBI's bin Laden mock-up (left). Pol: FBI used my face in Osama poster

The Spanish lawmaker whose face the FBI used to make an Osama bin Laden mock-up wanted poster has vowed to sue the agency, according to reports.

Gaspar Llamazares, a member of the leftwing United Left party, says he is planning to take legal action against the FBI for using his face to create a digitally-aged image of bin Laden a few months before the Al Qaeda leader was killed.


The Guardian reported that Llamazares also said his picture was used to make a most wanted poster for another Al Qaeda leader, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, who was also killed this year.

In response to the FBI using his face to make computerized mock-ups of two now-dead terrorists, Llamazares told a Spanish radio station on Monday he plans to file suit.

“I’m going to sue the FBI because they have not made things right apart from offering a weak apology through clenched teeth,” Llamazares told Spain’s Cadena SER radio station. “I’d like to remind you that the two people whose images were put together using parts of my face have since been assassinated.”

Pakistan’s The News International added that Spanish media reported the bin Laden image was put up on the FBI website again last week, but was no longer available on the site Tuesday.

In 2010, the Spanish politician first complained to the FBI for using his face to make a digitally-altered image showing how an aging bin Laden might look.

Typically, FBI forensic artists use features from a database of stock photographs to create an image. In this case, the FBI said a forensic artist did not find the right features and noticed Llamazares’ picture on the Internet. The agency said the forensic artist had no idea who Llamazares was and used his face to build the Osama image.

Assistant director of the FBI’s laboratory division Christian Hassell offered Llamazares a written apology at the time, calling the incident “unfortunate” and said nothing deliberate had been meant by using his face. The age-progression image was also taken down from the FBI’s website.

And U.S. Ambassador to Spain Alan Solomont personally apologized to Llamazares in 2010 for the use of his image, which was taken from his 2004 election campaign posters.

Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan in May, and al Rahman was killed in Pakistan in August.