BBC Uses Insurgents as Source to Accuse U.S. Troops of Another Massacre

The BBC has an article out today claiming they have a “new Iraqi massacre tape“. The most curious thing about this article is not the massacre claim itself, but a line buried 15 paragraphs into the 16 paragraph article:

The pictures came from a hardline Sunni group opposed to coalition forces.

That’s like interviewing Hitler for his take on life at a concentration camp. Who needs fact-checking when you have such unbiased and trustworthy sources?

Not only are the sources questionable, but so is the motive for re-running this story now... a story that's several months old. The motive is pretty obvious based on what the BBC chose to include above the fold:

The new evidence comes in the wake of the alleged massacre in Haditha...

In fact, the "new" story comes even after another journalist was allowed to review the incident report and came to this conclusion:

According to the preliminary report, none of the bodies bore only a single gunshot wound, contradicting one Iraqi police officer's account that each had been shot once in the head.

One body had two gunshot wounds to the head. Five others showed signs of entrance and exit wounds to the head caused by "flying projectiles," which the report noted could be "consistent with either bullets or shrapnel." Four others showed signs of entrance and exit wounds to the chest or abdomen, also attributed to flying projectiles.

The 11th person had "crushing of the head and neck," the cause of which was undetermined.

Nevertheless, the BBC wants you to believe anti-troop insurgents instead.