The AP has issued a new report in which they detail….wait for it….damage to the four mosques that they initially claimed to have been burnt to the ground:
Four Sunni mosques attacked in late November in the embattled Hurriyah neighborhood of Baghdad still bear scars from the attacks and all are now either under Shiite Muslim control or closed.
Immediately after the Nov. 24 incidents, an Associated Press story quoted an Iraqi police captain saying the four mosques had been attacked and six men doused with fuel and burned alive at one of them. In some early versions of the AP story, which was updated several times as more information became available, the police officer referred to the mosques being burned or blown up.
The report was challenged a day later, when a U.S. military spokesman said it could only confirm an attack on one mosque.
Since then, the AP has confirmed damage at three of the four mosques, including burn damage at two and slight damage at a third.
Recall what the AP reported way back when:
In Hurriyah, the rampaging militiamen also burned and blew up four mosques and torched several homes in the district, Hussein said.
and:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Sunni residents in a volatile northwest Baghdad neighborhood claimed Friday that revenge-seeking Shiite militiamen had destroyed four Sunni mosques, burned homes and killed many people, while the Shiite-dominated police force stood by and did nothing.
But now with this non-correction they try to push the reader into believing that hey, everything they reported on was correct. Bryan at Hot Air notes how they bypass the fact that they initially reported Iraqi soldiers stood by as they "destroyed" mosques and set people on fire:
In its initial report, the AP accused the Iraqi Army unit on the scene of standing by while Shia attackers dragged six Sunnis out of a mosque, doused them with kerosene and then set them alight, killing them. The AP’s latest report on Hurriya just glides right past that serious and unsubstantiated allegation.
While Michelle Malkin notes what else this latest AP report missed:
Nowhere does the AP acknowledge that it reported that the mosques were destroyed. (Note to AP: Check Lexis/Nexis like Patterico did if there’s something wrong with your internal databases.)
The AP continues to spin by mischaracterizing the military’s reaction to its initial reporting:
The report was challenged a day later, when a U.S. military spokesman said it could only confirm an attack on one mosque.
Here’s the full text of the military’s response on Nov. 25, which challenges NOT the allegation that the mosques were attacked, but that all four were burned
The AP also now acknowledge they have a reporter living in the same area as the attacks:
An Associated Press reporter who lives in the neighborhood, and whose name has been withheld from this story for security reasons, visited the mosques Friday.
But it took 2 months to get him to do some digging on the story.
Wow.
Of course no name attributed to the guy so no way we can verify that he even exists.
What a bang-up job these media types do huh?
And what is there motive in writing this report? It adds nothing to the debate, actually it deepens the hole they have dug by admitting (well, not outright admitting but at least acknowledging that NO mosques were destroyed) their initial reports were indeed wrong on so many accounts.
They have yet to produce this Jamil Hussein, only printed a report that the MoI has acknowledged he is their source. They have yet to respond to the fact that their supposed source is NOT named Jamil Hussein. They have yet to respond to the fact that Jamil denies being the source. They have yet to produce ANY evidence that six men were burned. Nothing, nada, zip, except these occassionaly reports that say nothing.
Way to go guys!
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