The Latest & Greatest On The “Burning Six” Story

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Michelle Malkin has written the results of her "Burning Six" investigation for the New York Post and while she discovered two mosques had each had two rooms slightly burnt she found no corroborating evidence that four mosques were burnt to the ground, that the Iraqi police did nothing to stop the attack, and that six men were doused with kerosene and burned alive:

When the AP ran its head- line-grabbing and horrifying account of alleged atrocities in Baghdad last Thanksgiving, its main source was an Iraqi police captain, one Jamil Hussein.

Bloggers led by Curt of Flopping Aces (floppingaces.net) raised questions about the veracity and existence of Hussein and the information he supplied to the AP. U.S. military officials and the Iraqi government initially disputed that Hussein was employed as a legitimate police officer.

[…]AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll indignantly attacked those who had questioned the global news organization’s reporting: "I never quite understood why people chose to disbelieve us about this particular man on this particular story," she told Editor and Publisher. "AP runs hundreds of stories a day, and has run thousands of stories about things that have happened in Iraq."

Well, Bryan Preston and I visited the area during our Iraq trip last week. Several mosques did, in fact, come under attack by Mahdi Army forces. But the "destroyed" mosques all still stand. Iraqi and U.S. Army officials say that two of them received no fire damage whatsoever. Another, which we filmed, was abandoned and empty when it was attacked.

WE obtained summary reports and photos filed at the time by Iraqi and U.S. Army troops on the scene. They contain no corroborating evidence of Hussein’s claim that "Shiite militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive near Iraqi soldiers who did not intervene."

One of the mosques identified by the AP, the Nidaa Alah mosque, had been abandoned and vacant at the time it was hit with small-arms fire, say Iraqi and U.S. Army officials. Two of its inside rooms were burned out by a lobbed firebomb, according to an Army report.

Three other mosques in the area – the al Muhaymin, al Mushahiba and Ahbab Mustafa mosques – sustained small-arms fire damage to their exteriors; the Mustafa mosque also had two rooms burned out by a firebomb.

Contrary to Hussein and the AP’s account, military reports note that Iraqi Army battalion members were on the scene – pursuing attackers, securing the area, calling the fire department, providing support and an outer cordon.

Recall that the AP reported, attributed to Capt. Jamil Hussein, that mosques were blown up:

In Hurriyah, the rampaging militiamen also burned and blew up four mosques and torched several homes in the district, Hussein said.

Or destroyed: (via Patterico’s Pontifications)

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.

The New York Times:

From morning until afternoon, at least four mosques were attacked in Hurriya, a mixed neighborhood in the capital. Two were destroyed, and at least 5 Sunnis were killed and 10 wounded, an Interior Ministry official said.

But according to Michelle’s time stamped pictures none of it is true.

Lets go back in time a bit here and look at the AP report on November 24th:

But Imad al-Hasimi, a Sunni elder in Hurriyah, confirmed Hussein’s account of the immolations. He told Al-Arabiya television he saw people drenched in kerosene then set afire and burning to death before his eyes.

Two workers at Kazamiyah Hospital also confirmed that bodies from the clashes and immolation had been taken to the morgue at their facility. They refused to be identified by name, saying they feared retribution.

And the Association of Muslim Scholars, the most influential Sunni organization in Iraq, said even more victims were burned to death in attacks on the four mosques. It claimed a total of 18 people had died in an inferno at al-Muhaimin mosque.

How many lies and distortions can be picked up out of this one report?  First, the named Imam went on record regarding the burning of the six men but later recanted.  Here is Michelle on the Imam:

The AP quoted one corroborating witness, Imad al-Hasimi, a Sunni elder in Hurriya, who "confirmed Hussein’s account" of the immolated Sunnis on Al-Arabiya television. When Al-Hasimi later recanted, AP implied that it was due to pressure from Iraqi government officials. The other possibility: He recanted because it wasn’t true.

Then we have the report that workers at the hospital morgue verified the burned bodies.  Problem is, there is no morgue at that hospital: (Bill Costlow, CPATT representative)

I think many people are also missing something here:  when a police officer tells a reporter that six murders have occurred and the bodies were taken to a non-existent  morgue, investigators want to know why — this has nothing to do with cover ups, as some media reports seem to insinuate — the idea of hiding a mere six killings in Bagdad is laughable.

And finally we have the report of a "inferno" at the al-Muhaimin in which 18 people died.   Michelle again:

Three other mosques in the area – the al Muhaymin, al Mushahiba and Ahbab Mustafa mosques – sustained small-arms fire damage to their exteriors; the Mustafa mosque also had two rooms burned out by a firebomb.

So lets go over this one more time.  We have no inferno, no burned or destroyed mosques, no 6 burned alive Iraq”s, no named witnesses, no morgue.

And this is what these journalists went to school for? 

Michelle spoke with the American military units that work directly with the Iraqi battalion that responded to the scene:

Capt. Aaron Kaufman of Task Force Justice, which works closely with the Iraqi Army battalion that was on the scene and monitored events as they happened, told us: "It was blown way out of proportion, there was nobody lit on fire."

Capt. Stacy Bare, the civil-affairs officer who took us on patrol in Hurriya, concurred: "There were no six Sunnis burned."

And she spoke to the commander of the Dagger brigade who explains why Capt. Jamil Hussein and his ilk cannot be trusted as a source:

Lt. Col. Steven Miska, commander of the Dagger Brigade at Forward Operating Base Justice, observed: "Part of it is, if you’re relying on Iraqi reporters, well, what are their biases? What clans are they from and tribes? Why are they telling me this? What’s his underlying motivation? And if you quote a police chief, well, those guys have underlying motivations, too . . ."

"I’ve gone out and found police chiefs on the street and said, ‘What happened here?’ Something just blew up and he told me, ‘Well, U.S. airplanes just bombed this building.’

"I said, ‘What are you talking about? It was freakin’ insurgent rockets that just hit the building, I picked them up on radar.’ " But he just told the reporter on the street that U.S. warplanes bombed the building and killed 13 people.

"So, rumors on the street Iraqis will take at face value. Trying to get them to do investigations is like pulling teeth out of their head."

But the AP trusted this guy (real name Jamil Gulaim *Redacted*) for 61 stories.  61 stories of unbelievable bloodshed and destruction.  How much of those stories are fairy tales?

As it stands now I would have to say the majority of them. 

The fact remains that the AP reported anything and everything this guy said. 

Why? 

I believe it’s due to their want of bloodshed to report on, along with the fact that every death and destruction report they can file bolsters their belief that Iraq is lost and Bush was wrong.

I mean look at how the AP summarized the Burning Six story:

It wasn’t the number of victims that was shocking, a day after suspected Sunni insurgents killed 215 people with bombings in Baghdad’s main Shiite district in Baghdad’s deadliest week of sectarian fighting since the war began more than three years ago. It was the method.

A method of death that never happened.

But hey, what does facts matter to the AP?

On another front of this investigation Bob over at Confederate Yankee has been doing some follow up to two murders of high level Iraqi officials over the last year.  Each murder was reported by Jamil Hussein:

I’ve continued to do some digging into one of the stories sourced to Jamil (not really) Hussein, the alleged assassination of Iraqi Police Captain Amir Kamil on June 20, 2006.

According to AP:

Elsewhere in the capital, police Capt. Amir Kamil, who provided security for Yarmouk hospital, was shot to death Tuesday at a bus station, Capt. Jamil Hussein said.

Unlike most of Hussein’s rather vague claims, this one provided specific detail I could attempt to follow up on. We know the name of the victim, who he worked for, where he worked, and at what rank, and even know how and where (in general terms) he was killed.

But guess what?  Not one person, nor any print media (other then the AP and Capt. Jamil Hussein) could corroberate this murder.

Further proof that the AP has been, and still does, get their stories from the enemy.

UPDATE

Check out the email exchange between Bob from Confederate Yankee and the AP’s Linda Wagner in which she sidesteps just about every single question posed to her:

Wagner appears to avoid any direct statements saying that the Associated Press stands behind their Hurriyah reporting, does not acknowledge the existence of the AP television video AP once claimed to have, and most noticeably, refuses to state whether or not they stand behind the stories sourced to the man they call Jamil Hussein.

These are not what I would consider encouraging answers.

The AP up to their old tricks.  Never answer any question directly, side-step when possible, and if neither trick works then just refuse to acknowledge a question.

Other’s Blogging:

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Excellent work, Curt. I added a link to Jamilgate: U.S. officers tell Michelle Malkin “burning six” incident didn’t happen. I’m
up to Part 42 of my Jamilgate series and the AP is still stonewalling? I’d love to say "unbelievable" but it isn’t.

Good job guys. The MSM may not want to think about it, but you’re making history, too.

Whatever happened to all those people who went nuts when it was reported that the U.S. military fed some news stories to the Iraqi papers? (That was back in December 2005.)

Apparently, the MSM thinks stories that ease tension are out of bounds, but it’s perfectly fine for the enemy to plant stories that inflame. The MSM better understand that this won’t ever be forgotten.

“So lets go over this one more time. We have no inferno, no burned or destroyed mosques, no 6 burned alive Iraq”s, no named witnesses, no morgue.”

1)No inferno
2)No blown up mosques
3)No burned to the ground mosques
4)No 6 immolated Sunni’s
5)No morgue at the hospital
6)No “Jamil Hussein”, but rather someone PLAYING “Jamil Hussein”
7)1 recanted statement by a named “witness” who never should have been listed without a full background description of his affiliations and a description of his association with a side that has an agenda
8)1 “response” which intended to falsely suggest that the MOI and CENTCOM should have “found” the police captain named “Jamil Hussein”…when in fact, NO SUCH PERSON EXISTS, nor would have been listed in the records.
9)1 follow up report by Steven Hurst which outright SAID that “Jamil Hussein” is his REAL name, and that the AP NEVER uses pseudonyms or “composite sources” to do so would be a violation of their standards and practices and that they would be OBLIGATED to tell the reader that they were doing so.
10)SIXTY additional stories attributed to “Jamil Hussein”…ZERO of which took place in his district.
11)ZERO additional stories attributed to “Jamil Hussein” AFTER his phony cover had been blown open,… 180 degrees turnabout compared to his use in the immediate months prior to him being “found out”…in that now it is nearly axiomatic that he is, almost assuredly a composite sketch of several Sunni “subsources” from all over Baghdad.

In summary, the AP has been foisting “urban legends” and “whisper campaigns” off on the reading public as “news”. They have been doing so with the clear intent to mislead the public that a “Police Captain, “Jamil Hussein” had personal knowledge of events on the ground and was “affirming” the “facts” of these events.

In point of actual fact, “Jamil Hussein” was not a real “affirming source with knowledge”, but rather…was the mouthpiece “caricature” who was utilized to foment a game of “Sunni telephone” to put forth the most horrific face on the conditions in Iraq as could possibly be painted. Apparently, for the AP and those for whom the truth was “not enough” to “convince” the reading public about the “message” that Iraq was and is a place worth abandoning as leftists insist…they had to resort to upping the ante with “caricatures of truth” to make it easily digested swill for us reading swine…for whom they deign to cast before us these “truthy” pearls.

It is one more piece of evidence that leftist media types are slaves to the “message” and if the truth is trampled in the process, if journalistic ethics (and to think THEY used to sneeringly call “military intelligence” an oxymoron) get in the way…if the facts are inconvenient…then they will be discarded and forgotten like…(fill in the blank)