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 at 06:08 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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August 26, 2006

MY CONCLUSION ON THE "HEZBOLLAH HUNDREDS"

I've been chatting with Sticky Notes about whether Hezbollah is passing out fake $100's, and, as I said earlier, I'm not inclined to believe they're fake.

But if that money IS genuine, that leads me to another thought:

That cash is a few years old, and it's still in like-new condition. Whoever is bankrolling this operation is well-funded enough to let large stacks of US currency sit around untouched for years.

This is no grass-roots relief effort. There's a major player involved. Who that might be, I don't have enough information to speculate on, but it narrows down to a question of "what source of Hezbollah funding could afford to sit on hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in cash without needing to spend it?"

Whoever it is needs to have their assets frozen until they decide that terrorism is not a good investment.

Interestingly enough, Sticky Notes speculates that if they ARE fake (which I admit they might be - I can't tell for sure without actually touching them), she might have a guess as to their source.

Posted by: Harvey at 12:44 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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