Photo purports to show Dozier with Red Brigades

Italian security police sources Monday said a photograph purporting to show US Brig. Gen. James Dozier in the hands of his Red Brigades kidnappers could have been faked. But a NATO official said the general's wife was inclined to think the picture was genuine.

General Dozier, the top US officer at NATO's Verona base, was pictured with his head against a backdrop of a Red Brigades banner with his body masked by a board covered in slogans of the urban guerrilla organization.

The picture was found in a Milan garbage can Sunday with a communique from his captors saying his ''people's trial'' had begun.