The news that six Sunnis were captured by Shiites, doused with kerosine and burned alive, was too sensational to not be picked up by the mainstream media. But it turns out that the event never happened. Furthermore, the Iraqi "spokesman" relied on to give all information regarding this event is as fictional as the story itself.
Jamil Hussein, the man news reports called "police Capt. Jamil Hussein," was the source for all information regarding the burning. Although he is mentioned by USA Today, the Associated Press, CBS News, and other outlets, Central Command says no such person exists. Centcom also asked the Associated Press to retract the story unless it has proof beyond Jamil Hussein's word.
Flopping Aces has a press release from Centcom, which is in charge of all U.S. forces in the Middle East.
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.
Story Continues Below Ad ↓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. While I understand the importance of a news agency to use anonymous and unauthorized sources, it is still incumbent upon them to make sure their facts are straight. Was this information verified by anyone else? If the source providing the information is lying about his name, then he ought not to be represented as an official IP spokesperson and should be listed as an anonymous source.
Unless you have a credible source to corroborate the story of the people being burned alive, we respectfully request that AP issue a retraction, or a correction at a minimum, acknowledging that the source named in the story is not who he claimed he was. MNC-I and MNF-I are always available and willing to verify events and provide as much information as possible when asked.
Very respectfully,
LT XXXXXXXXXX X XXXXXXXX
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
MNC-I Joint Operations Center
Public Affairs Officer
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Ah, yes, some more "fake
November 27, 2006 - 14:41 ET by MikeBAh, yes, some more "fake but accurate" "journalism" from the Dan Rather school. I predict the media will not issue a retraction or correction, but will stonewall until the story is forgotten for the next 90 second wonder to come along. It will, however be repeated as fact by the America haters both overseas and here at home via Kos and the Dummie Underground.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Did the Press Release come fr
November 27, 2006 - 14:58 ET by hs29fanDid the Press Release come from
P.O Box 34567
Houston, Texas 77034??????
Just Checking.
"Poor Liberal, he's educated beyond his intelligence"
Ah, yes, some more "fake
November 27, 2006 - 15:07 ET by mattmAh, yes, some more "fake but accurate" "journalism" from the Dan Rather school.
LOL!!!
NB should create a Dan Rather "Fake but Accurate" award.
what a day for our pathetic media
November 28, 2006 - 01:02 ET by regimeofterrorThis is only days after the utterly dishonest AP lead story of "Deadliest day EVER in Iraq" , of course it wasn't the deadliest day EVER in Iraq but maybe since the invasion. But facts don't matter when you have a military to undermine.
Next day was Tom Raum of the AP saying that the Iraq war had lasted longer than WWII. My email exchange with Mr. Raum revealed a pathetic ignorance of the fact that U.S. troops were still stationed in Europe, Germany and Japan.
CBS today had the nerve to tell Abizaid that the U.S. already "lost" Iraq. The nerve of this #@$#%# to tell a General that she knows more about warfare than him is utterly typical of the condescending snobbery and bias of these people.
And of course NBC lecturing all of us about how Iraq is now in a civil war. Of course they claim to know more than our military leaders, Iraqi leaders, Kofi Annan and most military observers.
Overall, a lousy, biased, ignorant, and typically useless day for the scumbags known as the (anti) American media
Greg
November 27, 2006 - 14:42 ET by Noel SheppardGreg,
Amazing. Or is it? Does this surprise or infuriate us at this point, or just make us shrug our shoulders? ns
It really shouldn't be amaz
November 27, 2006 - 14:44 ET by Greg SheffieldIt really shouldn't be amazing anymore. I still think we've still just seen the tip of the iceberg.
I still think we've still j
November 27, 2006 - 14:47 ET by Jack BauerI still think we've still just seen the tip of the iceberg.
Tip of the funeral pyre? Especially with a fake burning body story.
Proud member of the all-powerful and vast
militarist/industrialist/capitalist/zionist-bagelist complex
What.... the liberal MSM was
November 27, 2006 - 17:11 ET by Clear thinkerWhat.... the liberal MSM was sold a bogus story, by a bogus person who happened to give it to a bogus media reporter? Gosh, I'll bet this is a first.................NOT!
This (along with everything e
November 27, 2006 - 16:25 ET by Ten7sThis (along with everything else) points to a clear trend of the MsM and Liberal elements working against Our National Security. And I hope that we don't just shrug this off, but judging from the last election, I think that's exactly what "the royal" We, as a Nation, are doing. We're shrugging off not only these acts of Espionage and Sedition by the MsM and the Liberal Fifth Column, but also the entire threat of Islamist Fascism. President Wilson was able to build a bulwark against the Leftist Fifth Column, which served us well through WWII and up until the '60s. But it appears likely that neither GW Bush nor the likely next President will be able to protect Our Nation from the Liberal Fifth Column, given the current state of politics in America. I get the feeling that its going to take a real shock, apparently larger than a nuclear bomb test in North Korea, to jolt America to its senses.
disimform is in-over drive
November 27, 2006 - 15:01 ET by foolnomorethe type of team players that were on the job on dec.6 1942 ,,chamberlain,kennedy news service's aka baghdad bob's honest and down ta earth news,,, at your services!!
liberalism is the problem<>bless and support the troops job well done!!!
MNF press release followed by...
November 27, 2006 - 15:45 ET by gtinesscrickets...
So, where's the retraction?
Wow. About the only thing the
November 27, 2006 - 15:53 ET by Dave RWow. About the only thing they left out of the story was Green Helmut Guy. Or, has he been retired.
Mass-media has zilch credibility
November 27, 2006 - 16:30 ET by PlaceboThere was a time the media would be shamefaced for this ineptness and not confirming a story before shouting it from the roof tops. Not today, in the all too leftist propagandist media. It doesn’t seem to faze them that they are amateurish and more so incompetent. The mass-media has as much credibility as the “gossip” rags at food market checkouts. Come to think of it, perhaps a lot less.
Yeah, they were equally ash
November 27, 2006 - 16:51 ET by lnthompYeah, they were equally ashamed when the 10,000 Katrina dead in New Orleans became only about 1,000 Katrina dead for the entire coast.
LNTHOMP previously posting as LEENT. U.S. Navy (ret.)
My success and happiness are not determined by who wins elections.
Well, since the Democrats are
November 27, 2006 - 16:59 ET by MentalrushWell, since the Democrats are solving all our problems now, maybe they can fix this one too. Maybe they can get Iran to start handling our news coverage instead. I'm sure Jimmah could negotiate favorable terms for the handover of reporting responsibility so as to keep tax increases for funding to a minimum.
Someday I expect news stories
November 27, 2006 - 17:13 ET by Clear thinkerSomeday I expect news stories to end like this "well, it could have happened!".
Perhaps they should begin wit
November 27, 2006 - 20:50 ET by MikeBPerhaps they should begin with "Once upon a time..."
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Gullibility's Travels
November 27, 2006 - 19:14 ET by acumenI wonder if the developed world media's self-inflicted, super-sized gullibility has anything to do with radical Islams' contempt for the west?
Yo Achmed. Whaddup Mohammed? These western media useful idiots will sell us the ink in which to smear them Achmed. Dig it, they're our bitches now Mohammed.
Yeah, it's a real mystery why Muslims don't respect western values.
In spite of the fact they'v
November 27, 2006 - 20:06 ET by liberal_bug_zapperIn spite of the fact they've been caught multiple times. And in spite of the fact they were caught multiple times BEFORE the election... they still affected the election in favor of the Dems.
I don't know how we can fight them when our leadership is a bunch of pansies. We need a real leader to stand up and rally the troops (and I don't just mean the ones fighting the Anti-Terrorist War) and start prosecuting those who leak and print national secrets. We'll never be able to win any war as long as the Dems are in control of congress.
The press gets away with it because we have no power. Even when we expose them, there is no one in our leadership who seems to care. GWB has been letting them get away with leaking. He hasn't taken it to them and it cost us the election. You need to counter a lie with more than just defensive posturing. You need to go on the attack and do full tax audits, sue for endangerment and most of all, anyone who prints a story that reveals national security secrets goes instantly to jail, and awaits trial. No bail, no talk with anyone including a lawyer. They communicate only via letters and we read the traitors letters to make sure they're not doing more traitorous activities.
Keep the faith zap
November 27, 2006 - 20:17 ET by acumenKeep the faith zap. It's not as if the Justice Department isn't trying to do something:
The Supreme Court ruled against The New York Times on Monday, refusing to block the government from reviewing the phone records of two Times reporters in a leak investigation of a terrorism-funding probe.
Oh I'm keeping the faith...
November 27, 2006 - 20:21 ET by liberal_bug_zapperOh I'm keeping the faith.... I'm just ready to kick the pansies in the White House out and get someone in there who has got stones.
Is it me or is the US increasingly made up of wusses? Maybe its just the image I get from the MSM about America (I don't live in the US and haven't lived there for 11 years).
No, you've got it right liberal_bug_zapper
November 28, 2006 - 04:19 ET by SportPoliticsNo, you've got it right liberal_bug_zapper.
It's a weird kind of doesn't matter for the matter at hand wussie-ism.
Take Fitzgerald and the Plame case, he is such a chicken****, that when he found out right away that no law was broken and #2 at the State Department leaked the name, he decided he didn't have the balls to come out and tell the truth, because the dems would have had a never-ending fit about it.
He worked it and wriggled around for 2 years, entertaining himself with his power and his gleaning of the insider workings of our government with all his subpeoonas and fancy grand juries, and in the end came up with someone who didn't remember a 3 years old 2 minute phonecall. Just enough to satiate his enemies in the press and the public and the dem party. It was perfect WEASELDOM.
Whatever dude, the nation is filled with and run by pansies and liars. It's becoming more apparent all the time.
Who showed the biggest set this year? Now it wasn't even a big set, just an average set, what one would expect, it was even perhaps a bit too reserved, but nonetheless there is such an alarming lack of it, it seemed like the Big Cahunas !
Lynne Cheney, in her interview with Wolf Blitzer.
There you have it my friend, the winner of the Iron Sack McGintee Award.
Here's a few other examples liberal_bug_zapper
November 28, 2006 - 04:38 ET by SportPoliticsHere's a few other examples liberal_bug_zapper:
Who is gung ho about taking on the UN ? Oh yeah, that guy with the mustache that is so "offensive" to so many. John Bolton, a guy that at least certainly seems to be willing to tell it the way it is, and rip the heck out of the UN liars and colluders. But, he's too much truth, too much forward assertiveness the liberals are always counseling their peon nail biters to use to gain self esteem.
Take the Katrina disaster. The press and even FEMA was cowering and hunkering down. Blacks eating babies- cannibalism on the shores, gangs roving and raping in the superdome, returned to the flooded wilds pit bull dog packs taking humans for lunch, crocodiles snacking up on the remains, the reporter in the horrifyingly flooded canoe area, as the men walked by in 4" of water...
It was total fear incarnate, and anything and anyone was in constant dire danger of losing their life. Even weeks after, the Chococity man mayor had to call for total gun confiscation - LOL - I think they went into every home possible and raffled through it looking for what might somehow arise via voodoo and take them down.
The only person who seemed to have any sense and a set was that Coast Guard general guy, and it seems it was because he wasn't afraid of the acid bearing flesh eating toxic cancer causing water....
Yeah, buddy, total wimpdom, darn near.
You know what gores my ox abo
November 28, 2006 - 08:02 ET by The Real TonyYou know what gores my ox about this story, besides the fact that it was all a lie and that there will be no retraction or correction, is that there is a majority of people in this country that will swallow this hook, line and sinker and as someone else stated previously, ever miserable American-hating bastard will be repeating it, ad nauseum, in an effort to misrepresent the war and this country's work in Iraq.
What was the point of taxing me to near-death to supply the internet in every public library if the myrmidons are only going to use it to surf soft-core porn and not do some simple research and find the facts?
It should be a goal of every person who visits and contributes to this site to get another person to visit and start becoming more informed.
Sorry, I'm off my soapbox now but thanks for listening.
Kanye West doesn't care about Iraqi people!
Fight Terrorism at home - defeat a liberal!
Media abuses and misuses freedom of speech
November 28, 2006 - 19:10 ET by PlaceboIt’s about time when media outlet knowingly disseminates false and undermining news stories that, they be held accountable. This is not freedom of speech but, overt abuse and misuse of that said freedom.
If any of us performed our job with such blatant disregard and contempt of our employer, we’d be held accountable.
Update
November 29, 2006 - 14:19 ET by Right_of_LeftTurns out it was true after all.
http://news.yahoo.co...
Those poor people.