First forged memos, now forged pictures of insurgent hostages.

Drop what you’re doing right now and go to Wizbang. It looks like the photo of a “captured” American soldier that the Associated Press wrote about is actually a G.I. Joe special ops doll.

My immediate reaction:

1) Having taken more than one photo of a human being, I can say this soldier has a really tiny head.
2) The M4 carbine aimed at the soldier’s head looks a lot like the M4 carbine that comes with the doll.
3) It appears as if the “hostage” is wearing a load bearing assault vest with six smoke grenades on the front of it. How stupid would an insurgent be to take a soldier’s weapon but let him keep pyrotechnics?!
4) On top of that, insurgents would never let a soldier keep his load-bearing vest and flak jacket.
5) On top of that, the damned LBV with grenades also matches that worn by the doll.

And ultimately, the picture failed the laugh test … in this case, I showed the picture and the doll to five soldiers, ranging in rank from sergeant to captain. All five laughed their asses off.

Take a bow, AP … you’ve done it again.

UPDATE: Drudge said the doll’s manufacturer is almost certain that their product is in the picture.