Posted on 11/27/2006 3:41:07 PM PST by lowbridge
Posted by Greg Sheffield on November 27, 2006 - 13:25.
The news that six Sunnis were captured by Shiites, doused with kerosine and burned alive, was too sensational to not be picked up by the mainstream media. But it turns out that the event never happened. Furthermore, the Iraqi "spokesman" relied on to give all information regarding this event is as fictional as the story itself.
Jamil Hussein, the man news reports called "police Capt. Jamil Hussein," was the source for all information regarding the burning. Although he is mentioned by USA Today, the Associated Press, CBS News, and other outlets, Central Command says no such person exists. Centcom also asked the Associated Press to retract the story unless it has proof beyond Jamil Hussein's word.
Flopping Aces has a press release from Centcom, which is in charge of all U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Associated Press:
On Nov. 24, 2006, your organization published an article by Qais Al-Bashir about six Sunnis being burned alive in the presence of Iraqi Police officers. This news item, which is below, received an enormous amount of coverage internationally.
We at Multi-National Corps - Iraq made it known through MNC-I Press Release Number 20061125-09 and our conversations with your reporters that neither we nor Baghdad Police had any reports of such an incident after investigating it and could find no one to corroborate the story. A couple of hours ago, we learned something else very important. We can tell you definitively that the primary source of this story, police Capt. Jamil Hussein, is not a Baghdad police officer or an MOI employee. We verified this fact with the MOI through the Coalition Police Assistance Training Team.
Also, we definitely know, as we told you several weeks ago through the MNC-I Media Relations cell, that another AP-popular IP spokesman, Lt. Maithem Abdul Razzaq, supposedly of the city’s Yarmouk police station, does not work at that police station and is also not authorized to speak on behalf of the IP. The MOI has supposedly issued a warrant for his questioning.
I know we have informed you that there exists an MOI edict that no one below the level of chief is authorized to be an Iraqi Police spokesperson. An unauthorized IP spokesperson will get fired for talking to the media. While I understand the importance of a news agency to use anonymous and unauthorized sources, it is still incumbent upon them to make sure their facts are straight. Was this information verified by anyone else? If the source providing the information is lying about his name, then he ought not to be represented as an official IP spokesperson and should be listed as an anonymous source.
Unless you have a credible source to corroborate the story of the people being burned alive, we respectfully request that AP issue a retraction, or a correction at a minimum, acknowledging that the source named in the story is not who he claimed he was. MNC-I and MNF-I are always available and willing to verify events and provide as much information as possible when asked.
Very respectfully,
LT XXXXXXXXXX X XXXXXXXX
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
MNC-I Joint Operations Center
Public Affairs Officer
Thank you AF for looking for the official Press Release issued under someone's name. That's all we were asking for. I despise people who are loose with the facts to justify their pre-conceived opinions, no matter where they stand on the political spectrum.
Michael Richards has apologyzed more times than the Newsweak flak who wrote the koran in the toilet story.
Would like to see an official copy of this, or a similar request / statement, from a named US military source.
Remember the koran flushed down the toilet at Gitmo story? It was false.
Maybe we should play the same game and spread stories every hour or so like: 109 employees of CNN fired for spreading false stories and faking photographs in Iraq and Gaza.
CBS fires entire team in Iraq for false reports over last 4 years.
ABC Anchor involved in 29 fake photographs scandal.
NBC team in Gaza accused of 987 false documents and photographs.
Unnamed CBS VP accused of ordering the staging of killings of civilians to enhance reports of U.S. abuse in Iraq
CBS team paid insurgents numberous times to attack convoys at precise times in order to obtain ideal conditions for filming event
What's worse, they know it. But cooperate willingly.
It's not ratings. It's politics.
Anti-American and anti-Bush politics. Pure and simple.
And what is it that has created this "realm of possibility"?
Could it be the 1,957 other press reports that cite "Police Captain Jamil Hussein"?
Add a disclaimer note of incorrect news at the bottom of each news cast and we can take them to court for damages.
America has many enemies, but one of the MOST troubling to me is the enemy from within...and at the heartcenter of it is the media. They should NEVER be called 'main stream' as they are only main stream in their own twisted minds and egos.
The FACT is, they are the ENEMY. The enemy of freedom, of truth, of America...the enemy from within...they are the...
I wasn't able to find a sourced copy of the letter that's posted earlier in the thread, just a copy of the news release that's referred to in the letter, which says there's been no official report of the burning incident. I was a bit suspicious of the original story since, if it involved a real police spokesman, it would amount to an admission that the police had been on scene and they, too, had done nothing. One of the Hallmarks of these bogus stories is that the AQ flacks always overstep reality in their eagerness to come up with something to make us look bad.
Mine too. Made my mouth open and stay open for a long time.
37 killed in military plane crash in IranPublished: Tuesday, 28 November, 2006, 01:06 PM Doha Time
TEHRAN: An Iranian military aircraft crashed at a Tehran airport yesterday, killing at least 37 people, state-run television reported, the latest in a string of aviation disasters to hit the Islamic Republic.
It said one person was in hospital after surviving the crash in the Russian-designed Antonov-74, which was being used by the Revolutionary Guards. Two people were originally reported to have survived but one later died, state television said.
The Guards, the ideological wing of the Islamic Republic’s military, had earlier said the plane was carrying 32 Guards and six crew. All the crew were killed.
Television pictures showed plane parts scattered along the runway and a charred fuselage. A crane was lifting up part of the plane after flames had been doused. The tail painted in military colours was one of the few parts still recognisable.
Air safety experts say Iran has a poor record, with a string of crashes in the past few decades - many involving Russian-made aircraft. The last civilian plane disaster was in September and in January a military plane crashed, killing 11.
Details about whether the plane had left the runway before it crashed and the final death toll remained unclear. Police officials said 39 people were killed.
State television said the plane crashed shortly after takeoff but a police officer, Eskandar Momeni, told Isna news agency an engine failed due to "technical problems" when it was still on the runway, causing it to veer, hit an obstacle and explode.
The news agency said the flight recorder, the so-called ‘black box’, had been retrieved and was being examined by the investigation team.
Isna had earlier quoted Guards Commander-in-Chief Yahya Rahim Safavi hinting at possible sabotage but other Iranian news agencies later carried comments by him denying such remarks.
"I see the possibility of any kind of sabotage in this accident as weak, and if I have been quoted in that regard I deny it now," Safavi said, Irna and Fars News Agency reported.
The television said the plane was headed for Shiraz, a city south of Tehran, when it crashed at Mehrabad airport, which is used for civilian and military flights.
The Guards statement said the Guards members "were going to southern Iran on a mission" but gave no further details.
US sanctions against Iran have prevented it from buying new aircraft or spares from the West, forcing it to supplement its ageing fleet of Boeing and Airbus planes with aircraft from the former Soviet Union.
A military plane crashed in January, killing at least 11 people and another military plane hit a tower block in Tehran in December last year, killing 94 people on board and at least 22 on the ground.
The last civilian aviation disaster was in September, when an Iranian airliner caught fire after landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, killing 28 people. – Reuters
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=119746&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
The msm is a bunch of fifth column traitors. They ARE purposefully misleading the public with the level of disinformation they are publishing.
SS
By STEVEN R. HURST BAGHDAD, Iraq Nov 28, 2006 (AP)— The attack on the small Mustafa Sunni mosque began as worshippers were finishing Friday midday prayers. About 50 unarmed men, many in black uniforms and some wearing ski masks, walked through the district chanting "We are the Mahdi Army, shield of the Shiites."
Fifteen minutes later, two white pickup trucks, a black BMW and a black Opel drove up to the marchers. The suspected Shiite militiamen took automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the vehicles. They then blasted open the front of the mosque, dragged six worshippers outside, doused them with kerosene and set them on fire.
This account of one of the most horrific alleged attacks of Iraq's sectarian war emerged Tuesday in separate interviews with residents of a Sunni enclave in the largely Shiite Hurriyah district of Baghdad.
The Associated Press first reported on Friday's incident that evening, based on the account of police Capt. Jamil Hussein and Imad al-Hashimi, a Sunni elder in Hurriyah, who told Al-Arabiya television he saw people who were soaked in kerosene, then set afire, burning before his eyes.
Seeking further information about Friday's attack, an AP reporter contacted Hussein for a third time about the incident to confirm there was no error. The captain has been a regular source of police information for two years and had been visited by the AP reporter in his office at the police station on several occasions. The captain, who gave his full name as Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, said six people were indeed set on fire.
So what do you make of this ?...It looks like Michelle Malkin thinks the story is false
AP is standing by it
I thought there was no such police captian.It isn't that I don't think it is possible..it is the conflicting reports.
The first negative thing that I read about the report was someone discrediting one of the contributors (writers) of the article. Then it went to discredit of the Iraqi police officer.
I do not believe that I read anywhere that our military stated that this did not positively, absolutely did not happen, only that they could not, had not confirmed it.
what about the Iraqi security forces who were reported to have stood by doing nothing in the original report? Why no word of this in the follow up AP story?
That was reported in the original article. That was not what was in dispute. What was in dispute was whether or not Capt. Jamil Hussein was/is an Iraqi police officer which would either falsify (if not)or legitimize the entire story.
Also this is a reponse to a letter by someone in the military or working for the military that stated that Capt. Jamil Hussein was not an Iraqi police officer or something to that effect. See the letter in one or more posts above.
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