Witnesses Detail Iraq Burning Deaths

AP via ABC News ^ | Nov 28, 2006 | STEVEN R. HURST

[james500]

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.

[james500]

However, the U.S. military said in a letter to the AP late Monday, three days after the incident, that it had checked with the Iraqi Interior Ministry and was told that no one by the name of Jamil Hussein works for the ministry or as a Baghdad police officer. Lt. Michael B. Dean, a public affairs officer of the U.S. Navy Multi-National Corps-Iraq Joint Operations Center, signed the letter, a text of which was published subsequently on several Internet blogs. The letter also reiterated an earlier statement from the U.S. military that it had been unable to confirm the report of immolation.

...

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.

[bnelson44]

A lot of info on this case here:

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006439.htm

[listenhillary]

You would think people would be falling all over themselves to be back up witnesses.

Where were the photographers? Surely they were given a heads up.

[linear]

The photographers are only interested in American deaths.

[Indy Pendance]

Big thread here

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1744813/posts

[facedown]

bump

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Fake but accurate?...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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.

FOR TWO YEARS>>>>....just WOW

[Txsleuth]

I thought that was a BOGUS story...

[james500]

Ah, I didn't realize there was a dedicated thread for this.

[Thebaddog]

Let's see the crispy critters, like when they displayed our guys bodies from the bridge.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Iraqi Defense Ministry later said that al-Hashimi, the Sunni elder in Hurriyah, had recanted his account of the attack after being visited by a representative of the defense minister.

The dispute comes at a time when the military is taking a more active role in dealing with the media.

The AP reported on Sept. 26 that a Washington-based firm, the Lincoln Group, had won a two-year contract to monitor reporting on the Iraq conflict in English-language and Arabic media outlets.

[Indy Pendance]

Oh, that was just an fyi thread.

[Popman]

I read the whole article

It looks like ABC did their homework in following up on the story.

At least they attempted to actually get some independent eyewitnesses.

[TomGuy]

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

[TexKat]

Thanks for the ping!

[Brad from Tennessee]

Like Reuters, AP in Iraq relies on local stringers--part-time reporters paid by the word or picture--to produce news. If you look at the credits on the bottom of most of AP's Iraq stories there will be a list of Iraqi names. These are the people who actually go to the scene and phone back the information to the AP bureau in the Green Zone. This means the world's main source of news on Iraq outsources most of its reporting to some very dubious characters. AP can be e-mailed at:

info@ap.org

[TexKat]

FOR TWO YEARS>>>>....just WOW

With what has happened over there with the police and Iraqi men lining up outside police stations looking for work and being slaughtered, I am surprised that this Jamil Gholaiem Hussein has survived this long.

The turn over ratio has got to be hell over there for more reasons than one!

[gusopol3]

the original report said Iraqi security forces stood by doing nothing.. a rather prominent detail to omit from investigation.

[Marine_Uncle]

Now during the next presidential press conference Tony Snow was to put together a little package that explained in detail as how the L/MSM where suckered in, willingly or not, perhaps a few Americans would catch on to what the deal has been.
Off course no TV news channels would show that part of the press conference. They got the world tied up in their grip.
Pravda could do no better then the free world L/MSM, in only showing the masses what they want to be viewed.