The Burning Question (Figuratively and Literally): Is Reliance on Bogus and Compromised News Sources Slanting Iraq Coverage?

Given what Patterico and Flopping Aces have found, the answer appears to be the same as “Is the Pope Catholic?”

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Flopping Aces has received an e-mail that he says is his copy of one sent to AP (FA’s main site; backup site).

This has the potential to make makes this summer’s “Fauxtography” furor look like a schoolyard prank by comparison.

And if this doesn’t throw the entire issue of the quality of reporting (or is it enemy propaganda?) coming out of Iraq into question, nothing will (scroll to “UPDATE XI 11/27/06 0900hrs PST” pretty close to the bottom):

BIG UPDATE…..Centcom has confirmed this Capt. Jamil Hussein is NOT a Police Officer nor is he employed by the Ministry of Interior:

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(Begin letter from MNC-1 Joint Ops cc’d to Flopping Aces)

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.

(End letter from MNC-1 Joint Ops)

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Not only is Capt. Hussein bogus, but another source the AP has used extensively is bogus.

Allah at Hot Air has more.

Protein Wisdom reminds us by excerpting Flopping Aces’ very long post that this use of a Jamil Hussein by AP goes back at least to April.

All of this is on top of what Patterico has learned about the airstrike that the military says didn’t happen (with follow-ups here and here).

But, there’s more, not to this particular story, but to war coverage in general, that I’m having a difficult time believing, that is in its own way a bigger story. I’m tryng to get my arms fully around this, but may end up askng for help. Check back soon.

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UPDATE: Michelle Malkin is all over Flopping Aces’ and Patterico’s work, which guarantees that what they have done won’t get flushed down the memory hole without a fight. She also has a late addition referring to yet another suspect stringer, one Bassem Mroue, with original coverage by John at Op-For.com.

UPDATE 2: Flopping Aces has updated, and notes how the BOGUS reports have fed the new meme, courtesy of at least MSNBC (noted at the new FA link) and CBS’s Lara Logan, that Iraq is in “civil war.” As far as I’m concerned:

Bogus story about air strike
+ Bogus story about six bodies burned
+ Who knows how many bogus stories over 3 years
+ A new and suspect “story” from AP claiming US soldiers “shot up civilians”
(being checked by FA)
= BOGUS claim of civil war.

It’s the Big Lie being stacked up on top of all of the “little” ones. Horse manure.

UPDATE 3: Gateway Pundit has a great chronology of AP’s use of Jamil Hussein as a “source.”

UPDATE 4: Anchoress makes huge points, and does so extraordinarily well. Look at this Google News pic with its 891 results and its 2200-plus articles, and you’ll totally understand her, though I’m sure as bleep not ready to throw in the towel just yet:

Could it be this easy? Get your information from a dubious source and use it to declare “civil war?”

Well, why not? The press has done everything else it possibly could to undermine our troops and the president, since 2003.

….. How long does this get allowed to continue? And how are blogs supposed to overcome something like this, when the press won’t cover it?

….. I wonder how many of our troops are being further endangered by the fakery we’re discovering here? I wonder how many of their deaths in the coming weeks will be due to this sort of stuff?

As usual with stories like this the fake story – and the impressions it has made on the minds of the public – is out there, damage done. I don’t see how alternate media can win against a major media that fabricates crap and puts it out there knowing that even if they correct the story a week later, they’ve done their damage. It’s a sneakly lawyer’s trick, actually – like putting an idea in a jury’s head and then having the judge tell them to “disregard” it.

….. This cannot end well. The government needs to slap down the press and demand some accountability. They’ve needed to do it for a couple of years now. They won’t.

UPDATE 5: Wow — The hits to press credibility just keep on coming. Flopping Aces, at his latest post totally refutes an AP story claiming that “U.S. soldiers shot and killed 11 civilians and wounded five on Sunday night in the Baghdad suburb of Husseiniya.” Note at the link that now they’ve gone to quoting anonymous sources — how bleeping convenient. Too bad it’s not enough to survive a thorough denial by the military:

Reference the clarification requested on the story by AP below.

Anti-Iraqi Forces opened fire, targeting civilians in the al-Husseiniya area. 10 civilians were killed and six wounded at 11 p.m. Nov. 26. The incident was reported by the Iraqi Police through the Joint National Operations Center (a civilian matter relayed to the Coalition for tracking purposes). There was no Coalition involvement.

v/r

Capt. XXX XXXXX XXXXX (USAF)

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Joint Operations Center
PAO OIC Nights