Free Jamil Hussein

First things first for today’s update on the AP’s fraudulent story "The Burning Six".

Thanks to Jessica Well for making these two icons for all to share on their blogs.  Take them and put them up:

Meanwhile Mark Tapscott writes in the Washington Examiner about this whole situation:

What AP appears not to grasp is that the most serious questions about its credibility are already in the minds of millions of people, thanks in part to the bloggers, but also to the few mainstream media organizations that have covered the growing controversy.

What is most puzzling about the AP reaction is its failure to do the one thing that would instantly put the critics in their place – produce Capt. Jamil Hussein. If he is in fact an Iraqi police captain, it is impossible to understand why he cannot be produced and his credentials verified.

"Captain Jamil Hussein" is but one of 14 Iraqi-sounding names of sources quoted by AP that U.S. military officials say cannot be verified as credible sources.

And as I wrote about earlier, this Jamil Hussein was mentioned as a source in 61…get that?  SIXTY ONE articles by the AP.  His partner in crime Lt. Maithem Abdul Razzaq was mentioned as a source in 23 articles until the Iraqi government issued a warrant out for his arrest for impersonating a government official. 

This is our MSM at work folks.  They use frauds as sources for articles and then have the gall to wonder what all the ruckus is about. 

I mean think about it.  If they have used Jamil for 61 stories, how many more fraudulent sources are used every single day by our MSM?  

Confederate Yankee:

When producer Mary Mapes and anchor Dan Rather ran faked Texas Air National Guard records on 60 Minutes, it was undoubtedly the largest news media scandal of 2004, and yet, it was an isolated scandal, identified within hours, affecting one network and one show in particular.

This developing Associated Press implosion may go back as far as two years, affecting as many as 60 stories from just this one allegedly fake policeman alone. And Jamil Hussein is just one of more than a dozen potentially fake Iraqi policemen used in news reports the AP disseminates around the world. This does not begin to attempt to account for non-offical sources which the AP will have an even harder time substantiating. Quite literally, almost all AP reporting from Iraq not verified from reporters of other news organizations is now suspect, and with good reason.

Instead of affecting one show on one network watched by 14 million viewers as Rathergate did, "Jamilgate" means the Associated Press may have been delivering news of questionable accuracy to one billion people a day for two years or more. In this evolving instance of faux journalism, "60 Minutes" is now potentially 60 billion false impressions, or more.

Meanwhile all we get from the AP is "we are happy with the reporting on this story."  That’s it.  Don’t bother to produce this Jamil Hussein with proof of employment.  Don’t bother finding the families of those supposedly burnt.  We get nothing but smug silence, as if WE are the ones that need to prove our case.

Actually its exactly the opposite.  We have produced enough evidence that this story is a fraud and it is now up to them to provide some HARD evidence that we are wrong.  No unnamed witnesses.  No fake policemen.  So basically they need to do what any honest hardworking reporter would have done before going to print with this story, fact check the damn thing.

But I’m sure it fit into their preconceived notions of a "civil war" in Iraq so they said what the hell…..it just has to be true.  Tapscott again:

It’s time for AP to take the same sort of approach to resolve the Captain Jamil Hussein controversy. But there is one big difference between the present issue and the Dan Rather/"60 Minutes" ordeal – AP provides news to virtually every daily newspaper in America. AP is a cornerstone of the mainstream media. If AP’s credibility is harmed, every news organization that uses its products also suffers.

Thus, AP should ask the American Society of Newspaper Editors to oversee the appointment and conduct of an independent panel of respected journalists and outside evidentiary experts to determine the truth behind Captain Jamil Hussein and all other sources similarly in doubt.

I second that motion.

Check out the new Vent.

Other’s Blogging:

• Michelle Malkin
• Blue Crab Boulevard
• Winds of Change
• A Blog For All
• Ed Driscoll
• Daily Pundit
• Polipundit
• Ray Robison
• Patterico Pontifications
• Atlas Shrugs
• The Anchoress

Curt

See author page