Peaceful Baghdad Street (in downtown Istanbul)

On March 28, 2006, Howard Kaloogian's campaign website displayed a photograph which was claimed to have been recently taken in downtown Baghdad. The photograph was offered as evidence that the security situation in Baghdad was better than is being reported in the press.

Commenters at various blogs determined this photo actually was most likely taken in Istanbul, Turkey. Various indicators in the image reveal the location of the intersection: Many signs are written in Turkish, but none in Arabic, women are seen wearing revealing (western) clothes, taxi cabs are similar to those seen in Istanbul, European traffic signs are visible, as are signs of businesses based solely in Turkey.

Eventually another image was found on a Turkish web site of the same location.

After insisting that the image was really Iraq Kaloogian dismissied it as an error by his webmaster.