A number of websites posted this caption: This computer generated image posted on terror forums depict what would happen if a nuclear attack took place in Washington D.C

ThisIsLondon.co.uk reported the following:

Al-Qaeda's terrifying vision of a devastated America in the wake of a nuclear attack

It appeared as rumours swept the Internet that the FBI was warning that an Al Qaeda video was about to be released urging militants to use weapons of mass destruction to attack the West.

The information was said to be coming from 'groups that monitor Islamic militant websites'.

The FBI was quick to point out that it had not issued any warning and that the video was not an official Al Qaeda release through its media arm, Al Sahab, but simply an ' amateur' collection of old footage spliced together and posted on the Internet.

U.S. analysts said a lot of effort had been put into the video - entitled Nuclear Jihad, The Ultimate Terror - with graphics, music, and clips of different leaders and groups.

The same expertise seems to have gone into creating this image of a devastated Washington.

Al Sahab puts out more than 80 'officially sanctioned' videos a year to keep up the propaganda on the West. And the Internet shows how easy it is to stir up militancy. One message with the Washington picture said: 'The next strike's in the heart of America. When? When? When? And How?'

Last night FBI sources said Al Qaeda was desperate to get its hands on a weapon of mass destruction, be it nuclear, chemical, or biological.

So far that is only a dream... or, as this picture suggests, a nightmare.

Some bloggers were suspicious:

Flopping Aces, War News: Leftinistra Not Withstanding

In recent days, there had been rumors of a video released by OBL’s henchmen or other fellow Jihadi scum that warned of the coming nuclear attack on the United States. It smelled to me and I did not post on it but did monitor others who were. As it turns out, the rumor was proclaimed to be a hoax because the video was not released through the “official” Jihadi media arm, Al Sahab.

Then the Telegraph in the UK published this story which it had to hastily retract:

TelegraphUK, SITE red-faced as Islamist 'Washington ruin' image turns out to be from Fallout 3 game

A US intelligence group faces embarrassment after an image it said was an Islamic extremist vision of a nuclear holocaust in America turned out to be taken from a computer game.

The SITE Intelligence Group said that the image, showing a ruined Capitol Building in Washington, were created to facilitate discussions of the feasibility of nuclear strikes against the US and Britain.

The images appeared in a video, called Nuclear Jihad: The Ultimate Terror, posted on two password-protected websites, al-Ekhlass and al-Hesbah, believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’eda.

SITE also released translated several chatroom threads from al-Ekhlass and al-Hesbah, discussing the possibility of nuclear attacks on the west.

However, it has transpired that far from being a detailed simulation created by terrorist masterminds, the apocalyptic vision is in fact lifted from the computer game Fallout 3, by US game designers Bethesda Softworks.

The game bills itself as “America’s first choice in post-nuclear simulation”, with players roaming a ruined landscape some time after a nuclear war in 2077.

Despite it boasting “mind-blowing artificial intelligence” and “eye-popping prettiness”, the game’s creators probably did not expect it to fool the nation’s guardians.

Then MaxConsole informed us:

News outlets mistaking Fallout 3 concept art for terrorist propaganda

Multiple news outlets have incorrectly reported that concept art for Fallout 3 that shows a devastated Washington D.C. was created by Islamic extremists' for propaganda purposes. The watchdog that found the image, SITE, issued a statement about the matter after the Telegraph newspaper ran a story titled "SITE red-faced as Islamist 'Washington ruin' image turns out to be from Fallout 3 game". The Telegraph claimed that SITE said the image was created by extremists but SITE rejects the claims

Here is the SITE press release:

SITE Intelligence Group, SITE Rejects Telegraph's Inaccurate Claims

PRESS RELEASE

On May 30, 2008, the Telegraph newspaper ran a misleading story, "SITE red-faced as Islamist 'Washington ruin' image turns out to be from Fallout 3 game," which incorrectly and falsely described analysis provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Discussing a computer-generated image of a destroyed Capitol Building in Washington that was posted to a jihadist forum, the Telegraph claimed, without any basis, "The SITE Intelligence Group said that the image, showing a ruined Capitol Building in Washington, was created by extremists as part of discussions about the feasibility of nuclear strikes against the US and Britain."

This claim is entirely false, as is the characterization that SITE is "embarrassed" or "red-faced."

SITE rejects the claims by the Telegraph and stands fully behind the accuracy of its information and analysis. SITE at no time maintained that the image "was created by extremists."

SITE reported to its subscribers that extremists posted the image to a password-protected forum affiliated with al-Qaeda. This is entirely accurate. Moreover, this information was part of a report describing the general atmosphere in this forum with regard to extremists' discussions on weapons of mass destruction, making its context all the more important. This report in its entirety is also completely accurate.

The Telegraph is not a subscriber to SITE's services. Apparently, the newspaper made these erroneous claims without actually reading SITE's original report, and the basis of their information for their incorrect article is unknown to us.

The SITE Intelligence Group, a leading provider of intelligence and analysis to governments, organizations, and institutions across the world, has contacted the Telegraph to correct their factually inaccurate and misleading article.

I don't care who created the image, the important thing is that Jihadists posted the image on their websites to encourage fellow Muslims to help bring that scenario to fruition. Leftist defeatists will cry that right wing bloggers are using stories like this for "fear-mongering"; that since this is an image from a game, then obviously no one is seriously thinking of nuking Washington D.C.; our fears are overblown, blah, blah.

But I have to ask leftists: for what purpose do extremists put images like this on their websites? Just to scare Americans? Just a Muslim joke, ha ha? But suppose there's one Islamic psychopath out of the billion and a half Muslims out there who actually takes this seriously? Not possible?

This is the problem with leftists. They see scifi movies about invasions of Earth and think that life is just fun and games. Muslims don't really want to destroy America - that's just Hollywood and any right winger who believes that nonsense is delusional. Take a movie like Executive Decision (1996): about Muslims who take over a plane en route to Washington D.C. and who plan to blow the plane up over the city. Is that some unbelievable nonsense! What are the chances, really, of Muslims taking over a plane and say, flying it into the Pentagon? Come on, now, you right wing fear mongers, that kind of stuff never happens in real life.