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Has "Capt. Jamil Hussein" Surfaced? (Updated and bumped)
CENTCOM says AP’s "Iraqi police source" isn’t Iraqi police -- Part 19 -- Continued from this post. Breaking: Capt. Jamil Hussein located?
Allahpundit
Armed Liberal says he might have a positive ID — at the Yarmouk police station, no less, just like the AP said. Notably, he spells the first name “Jamail,” not “Jamil.” Could I have been right about a possible snafu with Arabic names? Could Patterico be right with his “third way” theory? Or could it be that the AP was right all along and we’re about to eat a huge shinola sandwich?
Color me skeptical. al-AP's had plenty of time to create some very convincing paperwork in the time since the story broke and real or not he's been reporting a lot of things no one else seems to be able to verify.
*** Slowly Collapsing The Cloud Of Uncertainty
Marc "Armed Liberal" Danziger
Hmmm.
With the help of some friends who have been doing a smidgen of looking, and it appears - appears, but is not certain - that there is in fact a Jamail Hussein in the Yarmouk police station in Baghdad. We'll know more tomorrow. ...
***
Patterico and See Dubya have more.
*** E&P Leaps All Over the Possible “Escape” for the AP
Patterico
Editor & Publisher has leapt all over the possibility that Marc Danziger may have found Jam(a)il Hussein. I’m not sure how long it took them to notice the controversy to begin with, but it took them less than 12 hours to notice the possible solution for the AP . . .
. . . but then, would it really be a solution for the AP? Maybe in terms of public relations, but not in terms of truth. (Query: which matters more to the AP? Don’t answer that!) As Marc notes — and the Editor & Publisher piece doesn’t! what a surprise! — finding that such a person exists doesn’t answer the many lingering questions about the story.
Was the AP’s story accurate? I don’t think so. Does Editor & Publisher care? And if the story is completely wrong — and there is such a person as Jam(a)il Hussein, Legit Iraqi Cop — doesn’t he have some ’splainin’ to do? ...
*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2006.12.16.21:47
Bruce Kesler writes: ... Those on the Left, who are quick to judge based on this, are gleefully rubbing their hands at those on the Right who have questioned the AP’s reporting. For example: Looks like Malkin is stuck between Iraq and a hard place.
Here’s some of the questions that need to be answered:
1. At which mosque did the incident occur? Are there damages consistent with the incident?
2. Is there photographic evidence of the immolations, or the burn-marks on the ground?
3. Where are the bodies? What are their names?
4. Why has no Sunni imams or Iraqi authorities vouched for the incident?
5. ...
It’s not over, by a long shot. Indeed, “watch the skies.” We eagerly await the E&P’s full report of all the facts. Indeed, we eagerly await E&P even asking the questions.
*** Finding Jamil Hussein
Posted by Curt
Marc Danziger at Winds of Change says he may have found Jamil Hussein working at the Yarmouk police station: With the help of some friends who have been doing a smidgen of looking, and it appears - appears, but is not certain - that there is in fact a Jamail Hussein in the Yarmouk police station in Baghdad. We’ll know more tomorrow.
You will notice that the first name is spelled differently which would not jive with the AP’s own reporting: The captain, who gave his full name as Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, said six people were indeed set on fire.
Additionally the AP has written that he is not working at Yarmouk anymore but at al-Khadra: He has been based at the police station at Yarmouk, and more recently at al-Khadra, another Baghdad district, and has been interviewed by the AP several times at his office and by telephone. His full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein.
So that’s two strikes to this story. We shall see if we get a third strike after we get a response from Centcom and the Iraqi MoI.
Additionally I would like to add that I have always said there may indeed be a Jamil Hussein (check out my many posts on Jamil Hussein here), but that he has been proven to be a fraud. If Mr. Hussein is indeed found he will have to be verified by the MoI.
As for the Burning Story we have to remember all the evidence that exists that this never happened: ...
Marc Danziger posts over at Winds of Change that he thinks there might be a Jamail Hussein at the Yarmouk Police Station in Baghdad. He doesn't provide any evidence, but then, he doesn't claim this is a certainty, either.
I posted the following in the comments: I guess the question to this part of the equation is whether or not "Jamail Hussein" is "Jamil Hussein."
I find it unlikely.
AP pointed us to this specific police station and provided Jamil Gholaiem Hussein as the full name of their source. It defies all logic to think that both the American and Iraqi forces involved here would not have combed every possible variant of his name, and have not run through through the personnel records of every single officer at the Yarmouk police station... not to mention the probability that they interviewed every cop at Yarmouk to see if they knew of Hussein. I think it more likely that your Jamail Hussein is indeed a real Iraqi policeman, but somehow I doubt he is a Captain, and I think you'll find he will deny being AP's source.
But as I've said on my site, Hussein is only one aspect of the story reported on November 24. ...
I think it is worth repeating that Jamilgate is a multi-faceted scandal. There are two basic questions driving this continuing event:
- Were four mosques and 18 people murdered (including six men by immolation) in Hurriyah as alleged by the Associated Press?
- Does the long-time AP source "Jamil Gholaiem Hussein." a Captain in the Iraqi Police, actually exist?
The first part deals with the specific allegations of a series of terrorist acts, and the evidence supporting those allegations. The second part deals with the credibility of a heavily-used and deeply trusted Associated Press source.
The common thread uniting the two parts? The unquestioning belief of the Associated Press in both the Hurriyah attacks they reported, and the man who was the primary source of this and 60 other stories, Jamil Hussein. ... *** No Crow, Thanks
Jules Crittenden, Boston Herald City Editor
By now just everyone who's paying attention knows that Armed Lib at Winds of Change, from California, claims to have found a "Jamail Hussein" in a police station in Yarmouk. No details on how that was accomplished, but E&P is pretty excited about it. Flopping Aces points out that numerous critical questions remain. Hotair raised some of them in its NYT takedown on the subject. Near the top of my list, is AP planning on firing everyone who consistently misspelled this guy's name, for months? I thought that was a cardinal AP sin. If this guy is in fact a cop. Or exists. Or has knowledge of events that the military and other evidence suggests never happened. None of which has been established.
Whether Jamil/Jamail Hussein exists or not, is a cop or not, speaks the truth or not, has no bearing on the AP's longstanding failure to serve its clientele and their readers in the manner they should expect. This includes, in the recent past, its unbalanced reporting on the Bush administration, its bizarre presentation of Saddam Hussein as a victim of the United States and the U.N. weapons inspectors, and its burying of key facts in the case against Bilal Hussein, terrorist-approved AP photographer and associate of al Qaeda bombmakers currently in U.S. custody. The arrogant and dismissive response to questions raised about Hussein, however, speaks volumes. ...
*** Does It Matter If Jamil Hussein Exists?
Rob (Say Anything)
Curt has been doing a wonderful job keeping abreast of the Jamil Hussein story, and we’re all still waiting anxiously to see if he’ll be able to make the trip to Iraq to follow up on it, but with all the attention focused on finding Mr. Hussein and getting to the bottom of the stories he’s told the media I’m wondering if it even matters if he exists or not.
Well, let me rephrase that. Of course it matters if Jamil Hussein exists. If he doesn’t some reporters are going to be guilty of perpetrating a major fraud on the American people, not to mention giving aid and support to our enemies in Iraq. But what I’m wondering is if the way the Associated Press has handled this entire situation isn’t a crime against ethical journalism all by itself.
When the veracity of a given story is challenged by no less an authority than the military itself you would think the AP would have an ethical obligation to satisfy its critics. The stories Jamil Hussein has attested to are important. They are inflammatory and set in an environment that is extremely volatile. They also present a desperate picture of a situation in Iraq that many Americans would like us to pull out of. We Americans base the political decisions we make largely on what we see in the media, and if what we see if false those decisions aren’t going to be well-informed. ...
***
Part 19 of a series. Part 20
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