It's Official: Media Body Burning Story is Bogus (Shiite vs. Sunni)

http://newsbusters.org/ ^ | November 27, 2006 | Greg Sheffield

[lowbridge]

It's Official: Media Body Burning Story is Bogus

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 XXXXXX

XXXX X XXXXXXXX
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
MNC-I Joint Operations Center
Public Affairs Officer

[gusopol3]

wait a minute-- if the entire incident is in question , how can the detail of the iraqi security forces and what they did, not be in dispute. BTW, I agree with you, this is not different than many things that go on there, but the negative propaganda value is that Iraqi security forces were on the scene and did not intervene (supposedly)

[TexKat]

if the entire incident is in question , how can the detail of the iraqi security forces and what they did, not be in dispute. BTW, I agree with you, this is not different than many things that go on there, but the negative propaganda value is that Iraqi security forces were on the scene and did not intervene (supposedly)

Ok, I will just say this It has never been my opinon or judgement that any of the article was false. I always took it to be true.

Also in other articles that I have read about the situation the police station is right there in the vicinity and some witnesses reported that some police officers were standing outside of that police station when this was occuring.

[gusopol3]

ok; but I know that from the year I first picked up and read newspapers, 1964, the news media has done whatever it could, whenever it could , to distort news favorably to the left and detrimental to the right. I can hardly imagine their not doing it now.

[FreeReign]

TexKat's Posted Article | Excerpt: 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.

Lowbridge's Posted Article | Excerpt: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.

Seems like AP has a credibility problem...again. I wonder who the AP reporter was really talking to.

[FreeReign]

That was reported in the original article. That was not what was in dispute.

You are still maintaining that the Iraq Security forces standing by and doing nothing during some incident -- is true?

[ArmstedFragg]

See the letter in one or more posts above.

That's the unsigned letter widely circulated through the blogs. I'm not aware of anyone managing to locate a copy of that letter that can be attributed to any specific person. Sounds like, at the moment, AP's just returned the ball, and it's on the bloggers side of the net.

[TexKat]

You are still maintaining that the Iraq Security forces standing by and doing nothing during some incident -- is true?

Did you witness otherwise with your own eyes?

Are you calling the Iraqi civilian witnesses liars?

How do you actually know that the ones standing by were not members of the Mahdi army dressed in police clothing?

What do you really know about the incident for sure?

[TexKat]

That's the unsigned letter widely circulated through the blogs. I'm not aware of anyone managing to locate a copy of that letter that can be attributed to any specific person. Sounds like, at the moment, AP's just returned the ball, and it's on the bloggers side of the net.

I totally agree ArmstedFragg!

[tobyhill]

Where was the funerals within 24 hours as is customary and where exactly is this "Captains" office? My guess is that this "Captain" has infiltrated the police and is actually a terrorist propaganda specialist protected by the actual police.

[defenderSD]

One thing the AP needs to explain is why it has been using a source (this police "Captain") for news articles without confirming the identify of this source with Centcom. If in fact the AP never checked and confirmed his identity with Centcom, that strikes me as remarkably sloppy and irresponsible reporting.

[defenderSD]

Just wondering, but were any former producers or writers of the CBS show "60 Minutes II" involved in writing this AP "news" story?

[Libertina]

Not that I don't believe Muslims are capable of such actions...

[defenderSD]

Wow, if the AP can't bring forward a real police officer named Jamil Hussein as a source for all those stories and verify his identify, this could turn into the AP's "Jamilgate."

[FreeReign]

"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?"

You:That was reported in the original article. That was not what was in dispute.

Me:You are still maintaining that the Iraq Security forces standing by and doing nothing during some incident -- is true?

You:Did you witness otherwise with your own eyes? Are you calling the Iraqi civilian witnesses liars? How do you actually know that the ones standing by were not members of the Mahdi army dressed in police clothing? What do you really know about the incident for sure?

No. I didn't comment way one way or the other. It was you who said that the Iraq Security forces standing by and doing nothing during some incident, was "not in dispute".

So I gave you a second chance to change the "no in dispute" comment and instead you give me non-sequiturs.

Here's chance number three:You are still maintaining that the Iraq Security forces standing by and doing nothing during some incident -- is true?

[TexKat]

Where was the funerals within 24 hours as is customary

One witness said he and other people from the neighborhood took the six immolation victims to the Sunni cemetery near Baghdad's Abu Ghraib suburb and buried them after the gunbattle. That witness said one of the victims was the Mustafa mosque muezzin or prayer caller, Ahmed al-Mashadani. He did not know the names of the five others, but said they were all members of the al-Mashadani tribe.

[defenderSD]

In post #150, "confirming the identify" should read: "confirming the identity"

[ArmstedFragg]

Here's a little piece of info re: "The Captain". The station AP says he works at is three miles south of the location of the reported incident. Also of interest is that AP first reported that the police stood by and did nothing, then changed that to the statement that the Iraqi military did nothing. That change came after they talked to Hussein.

There's a pretty good timeline with copies of the original AP stories located here:

http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/17a0e02a-d871-4ce8-8fb7-15f54c8742c8

[tobyhill]

Exactly! Anyone could call themselves any title they want in Iraq and if they're powerful perception wise they could actually become that title.

[defenderSD]

The AP needs to locate pictures of the crime scene and the victims from verified police officers and statements from these officers before I believe this story. Generally I find AP writers to be loose with the truth and extremely unbalanced in their reporting: they see their side of a story and in their minds the other side doesn't exist and therefore doesn't require any investigation.

[tobyhill]

Time to dig em up and see if they were burned or even at the cemetery.