Posted on 11/30/2006 6:16:12 AM PST by Valin
November 30, 2006: Two blogs, Gateway Pundit and Flopping Aces, have uncovered what appears to be a serious screw-up by the Associated Press in its coverage of Iraq. It appears that this American media outlet passed on terrorist propaganda, perhaps willingly. The mistake in question involves at least ten stories since April 27 in which a Captain Jemil Hussein was a source. Six of these stories involved alleged massacres of Sunni Arabs. Four others involved unknown victims. A second AP source in the Iraqi police, Lieutenant Maithem Abdul Rizzaq, is also proving to be nonexistent, according to Central Command and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. This is not the first time the media has been caught with bad stories and invented sources, but this is the most serious.
In 2005, media outlets ran with stories about the Koran being flushed by guards at Guantanamo Bay. These stories proved to be false the flushing had been done by detainees. This had not come out until after a series of riots fanned by politicians across the Middle East led to several deaths. In another vein, claims of torture were made in public forums (most notably the floor of the United States Senate) and passed on. Later investigation not only failed to uncover such things, but discovered that in some of the very few cases where the line was crossed, there was provocation (such as spitting on a guard).
This also is bad when what the media omits is considered. For instance, the photos used by the media in various reports, as late as 2005, on the detainee camps, also took things out of context. The images used were of Camp X-Ray, a temporary camp that was replaced by Camp Delta in April, 2002. Camp Delta is on par with the latest correctional institutions in the United States. A detainee Time magazine profiled in 2005, was slated to be the 20th hijacker the fifth person on Flight 93. Another detainee traveled to Pakistan in 1998 with an Iraqi intelligence officer to carry out an attack on the American and British embassies using chemical weapons. Nor has the media mentioned the fact that at least a dozen detainees that have been released have gone back to fighting with al Qaeda. The media has also neglected to point out that al Qaeda manuals instruct members to make false claims of being tortured if they are captured.
What makes this new AP case so bad is the fact that the phony source could have been easily exposed, had the AP bothered to contact Central Command. Central Command's public affairs office has its phone number listed along with an e-mail address. An e-mail address for Multinational Forces Iraq is also available. Yet the AP failed to check for at least ten stories. Failing to check a source once might fall into the category of an understandable mistake, but failing to check up on sources more than ten times is an incredible stretch. Central Command has informed the AP of these phony sources, but the AP is standing by its stories, claiming that they are using "a wide range of sources". This apparently includes phony sources.
Western media have long allowed themselves to be manipulated by Iraqi Sunni Arabs, largely because these media outlets opposed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and the Sunni Arab dictatorship that Saddam ran. The Sunni Arab minority (about 20 percent of the population in 2003, closer to ten percent now) were not only running Iraq, but had long been the wealthiest and best educated segment of the population. Thus is was easy for pro-Sunni Arab Western and Arab journalists to find articulate (often English speaking) Iraqi Sunni Arabs to provide useful quotes and sound bites. With that experience, it was a short step to inventing Sunni Arab sources, which was more convenient. This is an old custom in journalism. For example, Time Magazine was long known for its invented sources, and some avid Time fans would keep track of the names of sources quoted in the magazine, until they found the latest invented one. This was easy to do, because the same name showed up in different parts of the country, or the world, and in very different situations.
The current use of phony sources by AP has led to multiple reports that not only paint what appears to be a distorted picture of what is going on inside Iraq, but also reflects poorly on Iraqi police and Army personnel who are fighting terrorists. These reports, based on phony sources, have also misled the American people. But then, many Americans already knew that, because troops in Iraq, usually reported a very different reality. The Associated Press is going to have some serious explaining to do. Those who want to get the straight scoop from Iraq should check out Central Command's newsroom website or the Department of Defense's website. Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)
More found here
It's Official: Media Body Burning Story is Bogus (Shiite vs. Sunni)
http://newsbusters.org/ ^ | November 27, 2006 | Greg Sheffield
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1744813/posts
Posted on 11/27/2006 5:41:07 PM CST by lowbridge
Iraq's War of Perception: "Who is Jamil Hussein?"
http://www.strategypage.com/on_point/20061128212619.aspx
by Austin Bay
November 28, 2006
In 1980 Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke wrote a story entitled "Jimmy's World," the startling tale of an eight-year old "third-generation heroin addict" living in Washington, DC.
Cooke's expose' captured several volatile issues in one tear-drenched package. "Jimmy's World" had drugs, race, poverty, "fast money and the good life."
In 1981 Cooke won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for journalism.
Fine and dandy -except she should have won the Pulitzer for fiction.
"Jimmy's World" was a complete crock. Little Heroin Jimmy didn't exist. The Washington Post, its publisher Donald Graham, and Cooke's editor, Bob Woodward, were all duly embarrassed when Cooke's fraud was exposed. Her Pulitzer was withdrawn.
Woodward (of Watergate fame) admitted he failed to confirm the story. "I believed it, we published it," Woodward said.
In 1973, The National News Council was created to serve as an "independent forum" for encouraging responsible journalism and investigating allegations of press misconduct. My mentor, Norman Isaacs (a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor) served as Council chairman for five years. Major press organizations -especially the New York Times-- dismissed the National News Council as superfluous, arguing it had a "chilling effect" on aggressive reporting. The Council published a thorough study of Cooke's debacle - an examination that was ignored by the great press powers. Shortly thereafter, in 1983, the Council shutdown, due to lack of support.
We now move from Jimmy's World to Captain Jamil Hussein.
Now, if I were "writing hot" -writing for sensational effect-- I would have led with the alleged Jamil's blazing claim: that six Iraqi Sunnis were dragged from a mosque in Baghdad last week, doused with kerosene, and burned to death by a Shia mob. Four mosques were also (allegedly) burned.
The Associated Press ran the dousing story on November 24 and the story was repeated world-wide. (I read it on-line in the International Herald Tribune, a publication owned by the NY Times.)
Sensational, "headline-generating" elements absolutely jam the story: gruesome savagery, mob action, chaos in Iraq.
The AP identified "Police Captain Jamil Hussein" as its source for the story, with a second source identified as "a Sunni elder."
On November 25, the press office of Multi-National Corps-Iraq (MNCI) published press release No. 20061125-09 (see mnf-iraq.com). The MNCI stated that investigation showed only one mosque had been attacked and found no evidence to support the story of the six immolated Sunnis.
The US-based website FloppingAces (floppingaces.net) has published an email from MNCI to the AP that states "no one below the level of chief is authorized to be an Iraqi Police spokesperson." The email also addresses the story of the Sunnis being burned alive.: "neither we nor Baghdad Police had any reports of such an incident after investigating it and could find no one to corroborate the storyWe 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." The letter is attributed to US Navy LT Michael Dean.
I contacted CENTCOM's Baghdad press office and received an email confirming that Hussein is not a policeman nor does he work for Iraq's Ministry of the Interior (MOI).
FloppingAces noted that the AP has quoted "Jamil Hussein" in at least eight stories since April 2006.
So who is Jamil?
At this point we really don't know. The AP hasn't provided definitive details. Jamil's "burning Sunnis" story now appears to be rather dubious smoke. However, its horrifying headline has magnified a perception of sectarian terror, one advantageous to Saddam's "former regime elements" and Al Qaeda terrorists.
MNCI could be wrong, but the distinct possibility exists that the AP has been misled by its own stringers or duped by an enemy propaganda operation. The AP insists it reported the basic story accurately. However, if Jamil is another "Jimmy," the AP's story -as a weapon in a war of perception-- is far more damaging than Janet Cooke's Washington fiction.
Jamil and his various stories require investigation and substantiation; an AP self-investigation will strike many as inadequate. 25 years ago the NY Times dismissed the National News Council as unnecessary. "Jimmy's World" proved the Times wrong. We need to revive the National News Council - and have it investigate "Jamil's World" muy pronto.
Who said it was breaking news?
Tell me what to do. This organization is behind the sick bias of our news because they collect according to perverted guidelines.
Can someone explain why these reporters and editors are not on trial or charged with treason. I just don't get it.
You know, it really is irrelevant who broke the story or when. What's important is that the story get out there, which this thread accomplishes.
Take them out or get them out now or else this war is over and it goes down in the history books as another Vietnam in which we never lost a battle in either places.
You're assuming that they are ever wrong. Oh sure, they may (on rare occasions) get a little fuzzy on one or two facts, but they are never wrong. Anyone who says different is an evil ultra-conservative-extremist-neo/theo-con rightwing fascist.
"Tell me what to do."
Keep criticizing the news media. And don't buy their product.
bump to self
HEY! There are laws against self-bumping in public!
Enemedia bump and ping!
Looks like the "unnamed" and bogus sources might finally be starting to catch up with the enemedia.
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