I’m puzzled by the AP’s defense
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.
November 29, 2006 at 8:50 pm
[...] UPDATE V 1130hrs PSTUncommon Misconceptions is curious about this Capt. Hussein. He cites this AP rebuttal: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. [...]
November 29, 2006 at 9:17 pm
It is very likely that “Captain Hussein” is a alias used by AP to protect a credible government source for information on the Iraq situation. To protect this valuable source from militia group death squads is an important goal for AP since, this source may be very reliable. For this reason, distance does not really matter because this source likely receives credible computer or telephone tips that AP sends reporters to collaborate before reporting any story as fact.
November 29, 2006 at 10:16 pm
That’s a nice theory, but very unlikely given AP’s bald statement of his bonafides. And thus far, everything he’s reported would have been approved by the militia death squads. Not to mention that it is customary to identify the source as “anonymous” in cases where safety or jobs may be threatened. The press *never* provides a cover identity for a source - that would be fabricating qualifications. And finally, if the report is secondhand - that is also a vital fact in reporting a story, so if the captain wasn’t present at the alleged incident, the means of his obtaining the information should be revealed.
In short, your suggestion is inconsistent with journalistic practice, journalistic integrity, and the statement by the AP.
November 29, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Yes, why would they flatly give a full name for the guy (all three of them!) if it was an alias they use to protect his real identity? Wouldn’t they just say so? They threw the name out as corroborating evidence. Aliases corroborate nothing.
I hope this one gets followed up on. Both sides seem awfully confident of their data.
November 30, 2006 at 5:14 am
Geoff, I’m merely seeking to offer some reasonable explanation for the “Captain Hussein” controversy. But what really bothers me far more about this entire issue, because of my background in psychology and social work is the bizarre and paranoid nature of some who construct bizarre conspiracies who are convinced that the MSM make up the news or other strange cultlike conspiracy theory thinking. When AP proved some like FLOPPING ACES wrong by producing witnesses, then the argument moved to this silly “Captain Hussein” nonsense, which probably has a very simple reasonable explanation as well.
There is something very disturbing about persons who backwards construct bizarre conspiracy theories to back up some paranoid thought such as “you can’t trust the MSM”, as though the news media hire backroom fiction writers rather than reporters to satisfy the public’s will to know. There is always a tendency to report bad news more simply because the house that burned down is always more interesting than the one that didn’t last night. This is far different than the paranoid thinkers who think he MSM media is out to get “conservatives” or some other persecution complex disturbed reasoning process. Some of the statements on the handful of websites prompting this AP “fake news” conspiracy nonsense have displayed some bizarrre examples of persecution complex thinking that I noticed right away.
Offering political opinions is one thing. But continued bizarre conspiracy theory thinking is simply disturbing. I’ve seen paranoid schizophrenics who often manifested some of the same bizarre reasoning patterns, imagining some persecution that does not exist. It’s simply not healthy thinking, and most persons don’t reason this way. Most people accept that the news presents a generally truthful reality, just the opposite of some who are convinced that the reality has to be different than it seems, and twist every word looking for some “hidden truth” that they’re right and the rest of the world is wrong.
November 30, 2006 at 7:02 am
When AP proved some like FLOPPING ACES wrong by producing witnesses, then the argument moved to this silly “Captain Hussein” nonsense, which probably has a very simple reasonable explanation as well.
That’s kind of the point: AP *claims* that everything they said was true, but they haven’t produced decent backup material, and now we have the Iraqi government telling us that Captain Hussein is *not* affiliated with the police or MOI. And there’s no conspiracy theory here: the question is whether some faction fooled the AP into reporting their propaganda as fact. At this point the AP has not provided sufficient evidence to clear their sources, particularly given that the government is telling us that they’re wrong.
December 16, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Congrats on the Malk-o-lanche, Geoff.
What program did you use to make that map? I’m thinking it would be instructive to produce a big map consolidating all the neighborhoods that “Captain Jamil Hussein” has reported from, but the technology for producing something manageable and readable is eluding me. Hit me with an e-mail if you have any ideas.
December 18, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Walking a Beat With “Capt. Jamil Hussein”
If Michelle Malkin is still planning on a trip to Iraq to track down the infamous “Captain Jamil Hussein”, she’d better pack her hiking shoes. Because he walks a pretty hard beat. I think I may have been the first…
December 19, 2006 at 8:42 pm
What program did you use to make that map?
I loaned him my Etch a Sketch.
And I better get it back with four wires taut.
December 21, 2006 at 7:45 am
THere is no conspiracy here. The msm has been making up news for a long time now and there is no conspiracy there because everybody who has a clue KNOWS this. There is no surprise about this captain hussein and whatever after all the things ive seen come out of cnn/bbc/ap/reuters over the last 20 years.