Educating the Confused – Hermitian and the JPEG Comment

Our poor friend Hermitian is still struggling with the undeniable fact that the WH LFBC contains an embedded JPEG encoded image files with a comment that shows YCbCr. As I and others have shown the same comment shows up in a Xerox Work Flow. However, Hermitian seems to be struggling with his tools and unable to verify these simple facts for himself.

Reality Check took pity on him and provided him with a link to a Preview encoded Xerox Multicenter PDF which, of course, shows a YCbCr comment tag.

Expect Hermitian to continue to refuse to accept these simple facts, leaving the Xerox Work Flow as an unassailed challenge to the Cold Case Posse, to the extent that the CCP appears to have decided to ignore the findings.

As an added bonus, the JPEG encoded file shows the same Quantization Matrix as the one found in the WH LFBC.

 

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Examining Johanna’s LFBC PDF

Orly has made available a fully unredacted PDF of “Hawaii Girl” Johanna XXXX’s long form birth certificate which was obtained in 1995. Orly is, unsurprisingly, confused about the whole issue and believes that this document was obtained in 2011… Sigh…

But now let’s look at the document in more detail:

122,387 bytes Shasum 5c14e5659931ac3db0278ec4207578bdf59c5a13

PDF Format: 1.4
Media Box: 612×396
Content Creator: Canon iR-ADV 8105  PDF
Encoding software: Adobe PSL 1.1e for Canon
Creation Date: May 4, 2011, 10:17 PM
Modification Date: Nov 25, 2013, 10:01 AM

pdfimages -j Johanna-BC.pdf Johanna creates 4 files

Johanna-000.jpg
Rotated: 90 degrees clockwise
Shasum: a71d0fa7abcbc5dd92a2bcc09d1ee8b1cf0e3443  Johanna-000.jpg
150×150 dpi 825×1275 pixels (lots of white at right side (bottom jpeg))
Embedded Comment: “Canon Inc”

Johanna-001.pbm
Rotated: 90 degrees clockwise
Shasum: 4798c65ba40fe11743045ae1ede44f48fceab93e  Johanna-001.pbm
1416×1792 pixels

Johanna-002.pbm
Rotated: 90 degrees clockwise
Shasum: 678ad4edae3ba01e332b3e102ffc441d02261908  Johanna-002.pbm
554×1040 pixels

Johanna-003.jpg
Rotated: 90 degrees clockwise
Shasum: 4992b1910c50520847720aea848b69e8da63d398  Johanna-003.jpg
150×150 dpi 825×1275 pixels
Embedded Comment: “Canon Inc”

There are no obvious halos, and unlike the WH LFBC PDF, the gaps behind the bitmap text that is removed is filled with a background color, which obviously reduces the halo effect

Vogt spilling txe beans?

Vogt has been giving several interviews in which he has dropped sufficient hints to determine who he believes to be the forger. And while I am not going to make the name public, Dr Conspiracy and AnitaMaria at the Fogbow, have put the pieces together in an almost trivial manner.

I would like to focus on the claim about the TXE in the stamp since much has been made about the distorted H and yet few have noticed how the same distortion appears in a long form birth certificate obtained by Miki Booth dated March 15, 2011, a few weeks before Obama’s Long Form Birth Certificate was stamped (April 25, 2011).

The document in question shows, as pointed out by Butterdezillion, of all people, that there are other ‘distorted’ stamps, certified close in time to President Obama’s.

Butterdezillion: The smiley face and TXE are anomalies but they don’t make sense for a forger to put in a document. Whoever forged the BC would have just used what the HDOH sent, changing nothing except what had to be changed because it exposed the non-valid status of the BC and anything that they thought they screwed up on when making the forgery – like the background pattern. So it seems likely to me that Onaka used the TXE stamp and put the smiley face on the BC and the WH forger dutifully copied it without thinking that it was a red flag put in there by Onaka himself. It escaped Fuddy’s eyes, and it escaped the forger’s eyes.

Again, Vogt has failed, but I believe that his identification of the ‘forger’ has been his worst failure, especially given the fact that a Xerox workcentre workflow explains almost all the artifacts. Is this why Zullo spent 3 weeks in Hawaii?

What is truly hilarious is the following exchange

Hagmann:From my point of view as an investigator, you don’t announce, you don’t telegraph, you don’t post on a blog. You know.

Vogt: “You leave your ego out of it.”

Hagmann: “Exactly”

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cfp-radio/2013/12/05/douglas-vogt-exposes-obama-forgery

@45:20

HT: Gorefan @DrConspiracy

How Vogt ‘spilled the beans’ and telegraphed the ‘forger’

• AnitaMaria @TheFogbow
• Dr Conspiracy @TheFogbow

 

ABC News PDF and the AP JPEG

As I have shown already, a simple statement converts the AP JPEG into a 200 ppi version, with YCbCr4:2:2 and the exact Quantization matrix.

Of course, our friend insisted that ABC news would not be using such a freetoy, ignorant perhaps of the fact that the code is based on the IJG software (Independent JPEG Group) and the same Quantization Matrix also shows up in Irfanview (Windows), GIMP (Windows/Mac) and some other packages.

What was also interesting that I fed the Xerox JPEG to the same software and it failed to find any matches for the quantization signature… This further strengthens the findings of the embedded comment and the quantization matrix as being unique to Xerox or at least a reliable detector.

And so we continue to chip away at the few issues that our friend tries to raise to support his ‘hypotheses’, and which continue to fail ever so slightly…

For helping strengthen the workflow, we should recognize Hermitian as a wonderful contributor.

The tool I am talking about is jpegsnoop and I have run it against:

AP110427018673.jpg  – Save as 09

• Photoshop

ap_obama_certificate_dm_110427-000.jpg – Quality 77

• IJG Library  
• GIMP
• IRFANVIEW
• Others

4db82608b486f-000.jpg- No identification

birth-certificate-long-form-000.jpg – No identification

ABC News PDF in depth

Let’s look in more depth at the data. We already know that it is trivially simple to create a JPEG that matches the JPEG found in the ABC News PDF and that the presence of the original metadata from the AP JPEG should not be confused with the claim that Applewhite somehow created this PDF. Of course, Hermitian is having problem dealing with my findings as they do not agree with his poorly supported ideas. He objects to ABC News using the ‘freetoy’ to make the conversion, totally missing the point that there are many ways to skin a cat, or in this case, to simply reduce the resolution of a jpg. What I found hilarious is how my guess for quality resulted in Quantization Matrices that were exactly the same.

Hermitian wants us to believe that Applewhite created two PDFs, both showing the metadata found in the AP JPEG, one using Photoshop and another using Adobe Acrobat. There is NO evidence that Applewhite was involved in the creation of either document and logic and reason do not help us here either. For instance, why would Applewhite create PDFs for ABC and Muscatine Journal? Why would he be using two different methods? Why would he clean up the color balance of one and not the other. And how did he do this while he was attending the Whitehouse press conferences?

Reality Check – We accept your challenge Mr Zullo

Reality check has challenged Mr Zullo

What will Zullo do? He can chose to show how a ‘criminal investigation’ deals with information that contradicts its findings, or he can ignore it.

Either way, Zullo is faced with quite an unfortunate situation of his own creation.

AP JPEG and the ABC News PDF – Resolved

Our friend Hermitian stepped in it again..

You sure are wasting a lot of time on a dead end NBC. Serves you right for switching your starting JPEG image. Maybe you already know this (and maybe you don’t).

…

So the bottom line is your workflow doesn’t work. So you have no choice but to back up and use the other larger AP11042717913.pdf image to create the AP NBC News PDF.

Starting with this larger JPEG image one only has to open the JPEG in Adobe Acrobat CC and then save the auto-converted PDF.

It’s really not complicated when you know how to use the high-level Adobe PDF Tools.

The problem is that our friend’s knowledge appears to be limited to high-level Adobe PDF tools, while we researchers have many tool available. Sure, they are open-source and widely distributed…

convert AP110427018673.jpg -density 200×200  -sampling-factor 4:2:2  -quality 77 AP110427018673den.jpg

The resulting file is 200×200 ppi, Image Size : 2698×3234 Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling : YCbCr4:2:2 (2 1) and the quantization tables match.

Another myth bites the dust. The AP JPEG can be tracked all the way to ABC News and Muscatine where the editors used different processes to create a PDF and distribute it. For some reason, our friend Hermitian had been confused into arguing that Applewhite was somehow the author of both documents and that the timeline did not make sense. We now know the rest of the story and it all lines up quite nicely, as expected.

#File: AP110427018673den.jpg Quantization table Precision=0; Table index=0 (luminance) 7   5   6   6   6   5   7   6 6   6   8   8   7   9  11  18 12  11  10  10  11  23  16  17 13  18  27  23  28  28  26  23 26  25  29  33  42  36  29  31 40  32  25  26  37  50  37  40 44  45  47  48  47  29  35  52 56  52  46  55  42  46  47  46 Estimated quality level = 73.25% Quantization table Precision=0; Table index=1 (chrominance) 8   8   8  11  10  11  22  12 12  22  46  30  26  30  46  46 46  46  46  46  46  46  46  46 46  46  46  46  46  46  46  46 46  46  46  46  46  46  46  46 46  46  46  46  46  46  46  46 46  46  46  46  46  46  46  46 46  46  46  46  46  46  46  46 Estimated quality level = 59.56% Average quality: 77.55% (78%)

ap_obama_certificate_dm_110427-000.jpg Quantization table Precision=0; Table index=0 (luminance) 7 5 6 6 6 5 7 6 6 6 8 8 7 9 11 18 12 11 10 10 11 23 16 17 13 18 27 23 28 28 26 23 26 25 29 33 42 36 29 31 40 32 25 26 37 50 37 40 44 45 47 48 47 29 35 52 56 52 46 55 42 46 47 46 Estimated quality level = 73.25% Quantization table Precision=0; Table index=1 (chrominance) 8 8 8 11 10 11 22 12 12 22 46 30 26 30 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 46 Estimated quality level = 59.56% Average quality: 77.55% (78%)

AP JPEG and the Muscatine PDF – Resolved

The ‘pièce de résistance‘… Color adjusted inside Photoshop… While our poor friend was way off in his speculations about the AP JPEG, I was actually working diligently, one my sidekick Kevin had sent me the jpeg, to repeat the experiment that Hermitian should have done before making poorly supported accusations. Compare this with the Muscatine version (on the right). Not bad for a quick adjustment…

Muscatine PDF and the AP JPEG – Part 2

Remember Hermitian’s hypothesis that somehow, not only was the Muscatine PDF created before ABC news created its PDF (Hermitian had without evidence concluded that Applewhite was somehow the author), but was also created by Applewhite. As I have shown now, a simple workflow again explains the data much better.

Ok, I did the following

1. Import the JPEG into Adobe Photoshop
2. Change image resolution to 200ppi
3. Crop image (rough crop)
4. Save as PDF – downsample JPEG to 120ppi, high quality, preserve editing and fast load, PDF 1.3 compatible, embedded thumbnail
5. Extract JPEG

The resulting pdf was 5.8 MB (5,812,654 bytes) and 8.7 × 10.28 inches versus 5.9 MB (5,892,754 bytes) and 8.7 × 10.36 inches for the Muscatine PDF. Not bad since I do not have CS2 photoshop…

Both jpegs are now YCbCr4:2:0 encoded…

Things get more interesting. Matching Quantization tables for the extracted JPEG. I’d say another Hermitian Myth laid to rest. The best 20 minutes of my time so far 🙂

Muscatine PDF and the AP JPEG

I do not have access to CS2 but the following shows what happens when you import the AP JPEG into Photoshop and save as PDF. Remarkable is it not… Another Hermitian myth bites the dust. So let’s see if we can understand the minor differences. And Hermitian may want to address the matching tags 🙂

Tracking the AP JPEG – Introduction

My trusted side kick and fellow contributor, Kevin Vicklund has shared with me his DCSA103 JPEG. The image is 300 ppi versus 200 ppi for the ABC PDF document and 120 ppi for the Muscatine Journal PDF. Hermitian had claimed that Applewhite was the ‘author’ of these PDF’s because his name showed up as the ‘author’ but as I will show, this happens automatically as part of a simple workflow. While our friend is still struggling, I have, in the spirit of scientific inquiry, looked at the actual data.

AP110427018673.jpg was obtained by our friend Kevin from APImages and holds various surprises: First of all the JPEG is not subsampled and secondly, the resolution is 300ppi. As shown elsewhere, the image was created at 8:53AM on April 27, 2011, soon after the press conference had started.

The Muscatine experiment – aka shooting fish in a barrel

Let’s compare the metadata in the Muscatine PDF with the metadata of the AP JPEG imported into Photoshop and saved as a PDF? There is are two one missing entryies: Urgency and DateCreated, I will be repeating the experiment. Ah, somehow I missed DateCreated… It is clear however that the metadata is extremely similar… Anyone having access to CS2? I assumed that Hermitian had done this experiment, after I explained it some time ago.

There are two differences: the time is embedded in addition to the date and there is no urgency tag.

Kevin Vicklund to the rescue

Yes. Urgency: 5

The METADATA from the Muscatine Journal is identical to the METADATA produced by importing the AP JPEG into Photoshop CS2 and saving as a PDF, allowing for current date and time.

Update:

(photoshop:Urgency) has been deprecated in 2005. (Need to confirmed)

DateCreated: Use this field to record the date (and optionally, the time) the photograph was created, not the date when youscanned or edited the image.

Another myth bites the dust, I love it.. You’re the best Hermitian, you inspire people to push their research…

The Cold Case Posse – Failed conclusions March 1 2012

— Or the end of a ‘god of the gaps’ argument —

The Cold Case Posse released the following document on March 1, 2012 as a preliminary release of their findings. In it, its experts outline how they reached a conclusion of “forgery”. Note that they never really identified a ‘forger’ other than by claiming that regular scanning processes would not create specific artifacts.

Zullo appears to have understood this when he issued a challenge to show how a simple workflow would indeed create artifacts similar to the ones found in the WH Long Form Birth Certificate.

John’s experiment

john: I did at Staples on the big Xerox Color Copier (Not WorkCenter (sic) however). The result was not even remotely like Obama’s birth certificate

So you did it on a non WorkCentre Xerox and the relevance of this is exactly what? This is like the drunk looking for his keys under the street light because it was too dark to see where he had dropped them…

Update: See John’s file at Dr Conspiracy where he created a 13 Mb file created on a Xerox Color 550 multi-function copier/printer. He did not select the email scan option however.

Let’s hope John does better next time. But at least he is trying. Kudos to John. The image is 300 ppi single layer flatedecode

Final Report on the AP Documents and the Muscatine PDF

Our friend Hermitian has made some fascinating claims about the Muscatine PDF, such as that it was created by Applewhite (because that’s what the author tag states) or that it was created before the AP released its own PDF. A careful analysis rejects such scenarios and provides us with a more logical and supportable workflow.

Selective Services – Explantions and questions

Recently John embarrassed himself by  copying a statement found at a blogtalk site (the comment has somehow disappeared? Thanks to John for eternalizing it). Another contributor also showed how the numbers of those who registered around the same time as President Obama were unremarkably close

Bombshell – http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wheresobamasbirthcertificate/2013/08/28/sheriffs-kits-are-working

Obama’s Selective Service is indeed a forgery. Obama registered on July 30, 1980. On this date, Obama was 18 Years 11 Months Old. Even if valid, Obama was in violation of federal law:
“Under current law, all male U.S. citizens are required to register with Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday.”

Since Obama hadn’t registered at all, he had to forge the date. Since if was 2008, he you used that date by cutting it off and using the “08″. He had to use these numbers. But, in doing so, Obama proved regardless on whether it was valid or not, that he was in violation of federal law.

Of course, the facts were that the draft had been reinstated as explained by Whatever4:

Another PDF: Western Power – Xerox ColorQube 9201 – Sep 10, 2010 2:08 AM

Source

• Multiple foreground layers, one jpeg background layer

News Coverage

Dr Conspiracy has another hilarious posting about the competence of the Cold Case Posse and points us to some of the traction the Xerox forgery workflow is getting.

Even John understands how damaging this is to the Cold Case Posse. And I am glad that I have managed to get the Cold Case Posse to finally take their work a bit more seriously than having some people stare at an Adobe Illustrator window.

Helping out Hermitian

Perhaps our friend has not realized that I have been building the ‘report’ in the last few weeks, on this site. Did he really miss it all?

Workflow successes

With examples of other Xerox WorkCentre PDF’s which all show the same embedded jPEG and quantization tables.

PDF Images

I never really gave it much thought but my recent research into the images supported by Xerox WorkCentres caused me to ponder the issue of DCTDecode. DCTDecode is used to encode an image using the JPEG compression, and is also a fully functional JPEG image, however, in PDF, one should consider the object as a TIFF bitmap, encoded using JPEG compression. I recently noticed the relevance of the notation in the Xerox 7655 specification:

• TIFF (6.0 Old JPEG and New JPEG)

It helps understand why JFIF is not a required format, as the PDF format itself contains the information that would typically be encoded in the APP14 tag.

A minor mystery laid to rest. Also note that the YCbCr tag is obviously inserted by some older software to help with managing the JPEG encoding, as JPEG itself failed to provide for ways to indicate the colorspace used. While PDF resolved this by encoding this in the PDF data   (/ColorSpace tag), JFIF was proposed to extend the original JPEG standard.

Now it makes all much better sense as the relevance of DCTDecode objects, which are JPEG encoded data streams used to encode a TIFF image.

The YCbCr comment tag is likely added to inform the PDF generator as to the nature of the DCTDecode object. It all starts to make sense

This also makes sense, realizing that Xerox uses the same DCTDecode object to encode LinearGray images which is a color space not supported by JPEG.

Wherever the data takes us…