On November 29th and 30th of last year I posted about an AP source named Capt. Jamil Hussein.  Since that time a lot has happened.

For those not aware of the back story Capt. Hussein was a named source for 61 AP stories since April 2006, according to AP he has been an anonymous source since 2004.  On November 25, 2006 Curt at Flopping Aces had questions about a story which stated that 6 Sunni’s had been dragged out of a mosque and set on fire by Shi’a militiamen.  The cause of his concern?  The US and Iraqi authorities denied it happened.

The U.S. military said Saturday that Iraqi soldiers securing the Hurriyah area had found only one burned mosque and could not confirm reports that six Sunni civilians had been burned to death with kerosene. (AP)

Further research turned up the fact that Jamil Hussein seemed to be the only witness to this event, and to many others that portrayed a growing state of anarchy in Iraq.  (Flopping Aces story archive here).

From there things swiftly escalated with the AP standing by their story, CENTCOM and the Iraqi Ministry of Interior denying it, and many others including the NY Times, Boston Herald, Editor and Publisher, Eason Jordon and NPR all weighing in.  (Check each word in the sources most are a separate hyperlink).  Accusations flew, tempers flared, detailed maps showing the location of various incidents with a corresponding location of hospitals and police stattions were produced, and phone calls were placed to Iraq attempting to prove or disprove Capt. Jamil Hussein’s existence.  On December 18th it looked like Marc Danzinger and Michelle Malkin had located him, under the name the Iraqi police had him listed under Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim.  Two problems were quicly noted however:

• He steadfastly denied being the source
• It is a breach of journalistic ethics to use a psuedonym for a source.  (not as bad as just plain making up the news but still fairly bad)

When questioned by Michelle Malkin AP refused to comment on whether Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim was in fact Jamil Hussein. And thats pretty much where it stood until January 4th when the AP announced that the Iraqi Ministry of Interior had confirmed the existence of Capt. Hussein

BC-Iraq-Jamil Hussein,1116<
Iraq threatens arrest of police captain who spoke to media<
By STEVEN R. HURST=
Associated Press Writer=

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) _ The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press.

The captain, whose full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, was one of the sources for an AP story in late November about the burning and shooting of six people during a sectarian attack at a Sunni mosque.

The U.S. military and the Iraqi Interior Ministry raised the doubts about Hussein in questioning the veracity of the AP’s initial reporting on the incident, and the Iraqi ministry suggested that many news organization were giving a distorted, exaggerated picture of the conflict in Iraq. Some Internet bloggers spread and amplified these doubts, accusing the AP of having made up Hussein’s identity in order to disseminate false news about the war.

Khalaf offered no explanation Thursday for why the ministry had initially denied Hussein’s existence, other than to state that its first search of records failed to turn up his full name. He also declined to say how long the ministry had known of its error and why it had made no attempt in the past six weeks to correct the public record.

And seemingly that was it.  Hussein existed.  AP was vindicated.  Many people, including myself now had a lot of egg on their face.  Except, questions still remained: 

I am really tempted to call bullshit on this:

1. So far the only source for this admission is an AP reporter who is one of the reporters who used Jamil Hussein as a source.

2. The military say this report is in doubt.

3. Numerous attempts, including attempts by Eason Jordan and the Coalition Police Training Teams, failed to locate Capt. Hussien.

4. Capt. Jamil Hussein is conveniently incommunicado again, AP says his phone has been disconnected. (kurulounge)

And up popped Curt again with a source from the Coalition Police Assistance Training Teams (CPATT) casting more doubt about MOI’s change of heart:

Bill Costlow, the CPATT (Civilian Police Assistance Training Team) representative, has some more information regarding the discovery of Jamil Hussein:

Curt,
Here’s what I can tell you:
1. Media reports about Jamil didn’t use his name as he is known at  work so we had trouble finding him (Jamil Gulaim as opposed to Jamil Hussein: the initial query we got  from MNFI was for “Jamil Hussein”).
2. The real issue is this:  Jamil works in Al Khadra (think of Staten Island) — he’s telling the media about Al Hurriah murders (Think of Queens — it’s a different area of the city):

• Why would any reporter consider this guy a reliable source under these circumstances?
• When you consider that he’s been quoted in more than 60 AP stories, you have to ask how much of that information was secondhand or rumor, considering there is no evidence this last report of his ever happened.
• There’s been a series of murders reported by the AP
  • There are no bodies.
  • The source is a police officer from a different area of the city
  • There’s no official police report to refer to — so where did the information come from?
  • The bodies were reportedly taken to a hospital morgue that doesn’t have a morgue
  • There are no family member reports, complaints or interviews
  • There are no pictures or video of the event.
  • None of the other media in Baghdad are covering this (I belive these bullets were added by Curt)

3. The MOI doesn’t follow AP or any other western media source closely: they are very busy trying to impact the security situation — what raised the issue for them was a request from MNFI Public Affairs to confirm the event actually happened.
Hope this helps,
Bill

Which throws a monkey wrench into the AP assertion that the MoI was inept in not searching for Jamil Hussein via his middle name.

Khalaf offered no explanation Thursday for why the ministry had initially denied Hussein’s existence, other than to state that its first search of records failed to turn up his full name. He also declined to say how long the ministry had known of its error and why it had made no attempt in the past six weeks to correct the public record.

In reality this guy apparently didn’t use his last name much but instead went by Jamil Gulaim. 
Additionally, this may very well be the same guy that the MoI had believed was the Jamil Hussein we were looking for last week but he denied on December 21st that he was ever a source for the AP:

my CPATT sources informed me today that MOI officials have now questioned Captain Jamil Ghlaim at MOI headquarters. Ghlaim continues to deny speaking to AP or any other media outlet.

Not only did he deny being the source, he challanged anyone to prove he was a source:

“I am challenging any one can prove by recording or film that I did that”

So hold your horses everyone. 
Bill is in Kuwait at the moment heading to Baghdad and will have more infomation later.

and

I’ve been in touch with Bill Costlow (the CPATT (Civilian Police Assistance Training Team) representative) since he has been back in-country and I have a few interesting developments on this story.
First, the AP story:

Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied there was any such police employee as Capt. Jamil Hussein, said in an interview that Hussein is an officer assigned to the Khadra police station, as had been reported by The Associated Press.

But guess what Bill just confirmed?  Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf never acknowledged that there was a Capt. Jamil Hussein assigned to the Khadra station, he confirmed to the AP that there was a Capt. Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim assigned there.  Apparently he is the source for the AP even though he still, to this day (according to Bill Costlow), denies being the source.

…

UPDATE III
Bill Costlow has just confirmed that Jamil does not have Hussein in his name, and he has also confirmed that the MoI spokesperson DID speak to the AP and confirmed that he was their source:

Curt,
Seems like every time I talk to somebody about this guy, his name changes.  His personnel record says his name is: Jamil Gulaim (Redacted).
Spokesman BG Abdul-Kareem has spoken with members of the AP in Baghdad and has confirmation that he is their source.  That said, CPT Jamil still denies ever speaking to them.
As far as the MOI is concerned, CPT Jamil gave the AP bad information: there’s still no evidence the six murders occurred.
V/R
Bill

(I have redacted the real last name which has been confirmed to NOT be Hussein due to fear for his safety)
So there you are.  I have responded back to Bill with the question how the BG can confirm that he is the source if he denied being the source? 

Stalemate.  AP claims vindication, some bloggers still say “Hold on a second  you haven’t really proven anything.”

Now today Michelle Malkin states:

WELL, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior says disputed Associated Press source Jamil Hussein does exist. But at least one story he told the AP just doesn’t check out: The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as “destroyed,” “torched” and “burned and [blown] up” are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious.

She bases this on personal visits to the sites in question, as well as interviews with soldiers on duty that day. 

At this point only one version of the story can be true.  Who’s is it?

Why is this important? 

I think everyone will agree that the situation in Iraq is violent in the extreme, but when exaggerated stories are reported as fact in the news that skews the publics perception of what the actual situation is like.  That perception influences policy makers and the general public as a whole and causes a loss of support for the mission.  This has already been seen with the NBCs announcement that they now view Iraq as a civil war.  This was based in part on this report of the immolation of the six Sunni.   

This lack of will actually contributes to the violence in my opinion.  Why should anyone come to the negotiation table when they know they only have to gut it out for as long as it takes for congress to decide to defund the war based on the fact that it is “a civil war”, and “we aren’t accomplishing anything”, or at most til the next Presidential election.  Given the current state of affairs no one who supports a continued presence in Iraq can possibly win and the enemy knows that.

The AP may not be intentionally publishing enemy propoganda but the result is the same.  A decrease in the country’s morale and probably an accelerated withdrawal from Iraq.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 21st, 2007 at 11:48 am by Chad and is filed under War, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.