The blogosphere has been abuzz over the possibly fake story of the six Sunnis being burned to death last week. Flopping Ace’s and the military both questioned whether the source AP used for the story, Captain Jamil Hussein, really existed. The AP came back with a vigorous defense, stating:
The police captain cited in our story has long been known to the AP reporters and has been interviewed in his office and by telephone on several occasions during the past two years.
He is an officer at the police station in Yarmouk, with a record of reliability and truthfulness. His full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein.
So here’s my question: Yarmouk is a wealthy Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad. Hurriyah, the slum where the burnings allegedly occurred, is in northern Baghdad. Take a look at this map of Baghdad to get an idea of how far apart they are (click on map for better view):
And since the Shiites basically took over Hurriyah and are strongly affiliated with Moqtada al Sadr, it is unlikely that many Sunnis would be visiting. Or patrolling there.
And let’s take a look at a day in the life of a police officer in Yarmouk:
There is a police station in Yarmouk but the police are holed up inside, powerless to intervene, because the insurgents are better armed. (10/29/06)
Is it really likely that this Police Captain had any sort of first-hand knowledge of events in Hurriyah? And if not, why didn’t the media make that clear?
UPDATE: Now we hear (via Flopping Aces) that the Iraqi government is going to declare that Capt. Jamil Hussein is not a police officer or member of the Ministry of the Interior. I think the AP should be given a chance to investigate the story and explain to the world exactly how they were taken in by this guy.
UPDATE II: Another version of the AP rebuttal states that Hussein was formerly stationed at Yarmouk, but is now at al-Khadra (thanks to See-Dubya for pointing this out at Flopping Aces). Al-Khadra, eh? Here’s a snippet about al-Khadra:
In al-Khadra, a Sunni neighbourhood in west Baghdad, for instance, the insurgents are waging two wars at the same time, one against the Americans and the other against Shia militiamen, some of whom work for the Ministry of the Interior. (3/20/06)
Hmmm. I keep trying to update the Baghdad map to show Al-Khadra, but it seems to have cached the old one. Maybe it’ll cure itself.
In any case, al-Khadra is closer than al-Yarmouk to al-Hurriyah, but still very distant in politics and police jurisdiction.
