Post-9/11 photo shows Bush and deputy defense secretary, not Osama bin Laden | Fact check

The claim: Image shows George W. Bush meeting with Osama bin Laden

A Jan. 19 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a grainy image of former President George W. Bush sitting at a table surrounded by a group, including a man in a white turban.

“Rice, Bush, Rumsfeld and ... Bin Laden,” reads the caption under the image, which is a screenshot of another Instagram post. “I wonder what the meeting was about?”

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Our rating: Altered

The image has been digitally altered. The original image shows former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, not al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, meeting with Bush and other officials following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Original photo shows US officials in meeting after 9/11

The Department of Defense published the original image, which does not show bin Laden, on its website. It shows Bush and a group of government officials meeting at the Pentagon on Sept. 12, 2001 – one day after bin Laden’s terrorist group, al-Qaida, attacked the World Trade Center and other eastern U.S. locations, killing thousands of Americans.

Wolfowitz sits in the chair where bin Laden was digitally added to the photo. To his left sits then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was introducing Bush to his staff members, according to the Department of Defense’s caption of the image. 

Getty Images also published the photo showing Wolfowitz, not bin Laden. Wolfowitz is shown in another photo from the meeting taken from a different angle. 

The al-Qaida leader went into hiding shortly after the 2001 attacks and was killed in a U.S. raid in 2011.

Fact check: Altered image shows Atlantic headline about 9/11 conspiracy theorists

USA TODAY has previously debunked other altered images of public figures, including those that showed former President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein on a private jet, Taylor Swift in an anti-Trump t-shirt and Pope John Paul II with future popes Benedict and Francis. 

USA TODAY reached out to users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Reuters and the Associated Press also debunked the claim. 

Our fact-check sources:

• Department of Defense, Sept. 12, 2001, President Bush meets with Secretary Rumsfeld and his staff 
• Department of Defense, Sept. 12, 2001, Secretary Rumsfeld introduces staff members to President Bush at their Pentagon meeting 
• Getty Images, Sept. 12, 2001, George W. Bush; Donald H. Rumsfeld 

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