Attack of the Camel Spiders

I recently received a copy of this picture (uncropped ver of pic to right) of a supposed pair of camel spiders in Iraq. The attached description reads:

ISSUED BY THE IRAQ TOURIST BOARD........ENJOY
A weapon of mass destruction

Camel spiders

They run 10 mph, jump three feet, are a nocturnal spider, so only come out at night unless they are in shade. When they bite you, you are injected with Novocain so you go numb instantly. You don't even know you are bitten when you are sleeping, so you wake up with part of your leg or arm missing because it has been gnawing on it all night long. If you are walking around and you bump something that is casting a shadow over it, and the sun makes contact with it, you better run. It will instantly run for your shadow, and scream the whole time it is chasing you.

PS. The one on the bottom is eating the one on the top. These are Spiders found daily in IRAQ by troops. Imagine waking up and seeing one of these in your tent!!

  Now, being the skeptic I generally am with internet artifacts, I Googled a bit.

  First up comes this 3rd Brigade Family Readiness Group page, which puts things a bit more in perspective while admitting "their appearance can cause alarm if they enter tents."
  Still, these looked like some fukkin unbelievably big spiders, so next off to The Straight Dope to get the dope on this arthropod. There the waits an even scarier description, mentioning speeds of 25mph and loosened camel intestines. See the Dope's answer for more. However the size question was laid to rest. If you look more closely the picture tends to exaggerate the size of the spiders using the soldiers in the background. Examining the hand in the upper right corner more closely convinces me the picture is probably not doctored, just well-cropped. They are a bit smaller than an adult hand (still, not too shabby).
  An entry on Gophergas gives a few goodies, such as a video of the camel spider in action against a scorpion and a Nuke the Giant Spiders game (a younger, more dynamic relative of Missile Command in java).
  Additionally, Boing Boing reveals they are actually not spiders and are called matevenados. Finally, everyone's favorite snopes.com offers a Fauna Import UK Camel Spider Caresheet which suggests "[o]verall this is an amazing creature, not for the novice but if you have experience with inverts why not give it a go?"

Sure, let's get one of jimoto's old aquariums and raise a family.

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