Austin Bay : Iraq's war of perception: 'Who is Jamil Hussein?'

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Iraq's war of perception: 'Who is Jamil Hussein?'

by Austin Bay

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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?

Improvment
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We'll have to wait and see

In 1980, Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke wrote a story titled "Jimmy's World," the startling tale of an 8-year-old "third-generation heroin addict" living in Washington, D.C.

Cooke's expose' captured several volatile issues in one tear-drenched package. "Jimmy's World" had drugs, race, poverty, "fast money and the good life."

In 1981, Cooke won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

Fine and dandy -- except she should have won the Pulitzer for fiction.

"Jimmy's World" was a complete crock. Little Heroin Jimmy didn't exist. The Washington Post, its publisher, Donald Graham, and Cooke's editor, Bob Woodward, were all duly embarrassed when Cooke's fraud was exposed. Her Pulitzer was withdrawn.

Woodward (of Watergate fame) admitted he failed to confirm the story. "I believed it; we published it," Woodward said.

In 1973, The National News Council was created to serve as an "independent forum" for encouraging responsible journalism and investigating allegations of press misconduct. My mentor, Norman Isaacs (a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor), served as council chairman for five years. Major press organizations -- especially The New York Times -- dismissed the National News Council as superfluous, arguing it had a "chilling effect" on aggressive reporting. The council published a thorough study of Cooke's debacle -- an examination that was ignored by the great press powers. Shortly thereafter, in 1983, the council shut down, due to lack of support.

We now move from Jimmy's World to Capt. Jamil Hussein.

Now, if I were "writing hot" -- writing for sensational effect -- I would have led with the alleged Jamil's blazing claim: that six Iraqi Sunnis were dragged from a mosque in Baghdad last week, doused with kerosene and burned to death by a Shia mob. Four mosques were also (allegedly) burned.

The Associated Press ran the dousing story on Nov. 24, and the story was repeated worldwide. (I read it online in the International Herald Tribune, a publication owned by The New York Times.)

Sensational, "headline-generating" elements absolutely jam the story: gruesome savagery, mob action, chaos in Iraq.

The AP identified "Police Captain Jamil Hussein" as its source for the story, with a second source identified as "a Sunni elder."

On Nov. 25, the press office of Multi-National Corps-Iraq (MNCI) published press release No. 20061125-09 (see mnf-iraq.com). The MNCI stated that investigation showed only one mosque had been attacked and found no evidence to support the story of the six immolated Sunnis.

The U.S.-based Website FloppingAces (floppingaces.net) has published an email from MNCI to the AP that states "no one below the level of chief is authorized to be an Iraqi police spokesperson." The email also addresses the story of the Sunnis being burned alive: "... neither we nor Baghdad Police had any reports of such an incident after investigating it and could find no one to corroborate the story. ... We can tell you definitively that the primary source of this story, police Capt. Jamil Hussein, is not a Baghdad police officer or an MOI (Ministry of the Interior) employee." The letter is attributed to U.S. Navy Lt. Michael Dean.

I contacted CENTCOM's Baghdad press office and received an email confirming that Hussein is not a policeman nor does he work for Iraq's MOI.

FloppingAces noted that the AP has quoted "Jamil Hussein" in at least eight stories since April 2006.

So who is Jamil?

At this point we really don't know. The AP hasn't provided definitive details. Jamil's "burning Sunnis" story now appears to be rather dubious smoke. However, its horrifying headline has magnified a perception of sectarian terror, one advantageous to Saddam's "former regime elements" and al-Qaida terrorists.

MNCI could be wrong, but the distinct possibility exists that the AP has been misled by its own stringers or duped by an enemy propaganda operation. If Jamil is another "Jimmy," the AP's story -- as a weapon in a war of perception -- is far more damaging than Janet Cooke's Washington fiction.

Jamil and his various stories require investigation and substantiation; an AP self-investigation will strike many as inadequate. Twenty-five years ago, The New York Times dismissed the National News Council as unnecessary. "Jimmy's World" proved the Times wrong. We need to revive the National News Council -- and have it investigate "Jamil's World" muy pronto.

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About The Author

Austin Bay Austin Bay is author of three novels. His third novel, The Wrong Side of Brightness, was published by Putnam/Jove in June 2003. He has also co-authored four non-fiction books, to include A Quick and Dirty Guide to War: Third Edition (with James Dunnigan, Morrow, 1996).

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TAP001 Location: OH

Reply # 1
Date: Nov 29, 2006 - 8:00 AM EST

Exactly, The Lame Stream Media always

Takes the knee-jerk route if the story furthers their liberal cause, as this one does. Americans cringe at the thought of people being burned alive for their faith. The Lame Stream Drive-By media knows this and a story like this garners a lot of American support fo the DemRats Cut-N-Run policy. If we do not start policing our news media better we might as well be getting our news from the old TASS Russian News Agency. They only reported the news that the Soviet people needed to know.
I get my news from FOX News and from websites like this. I am smart enough to make up my own mind about how I should feel about a story.
Besides the Big 3 Networks and the Communist News Network only concentrate on Global Warming & Sky Falling stories. Who needs those buttheads?

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eon Location: OH

Reply # 2
Date: Nov 29, 2006 - 8:24 AM EST

AP, the New York Times, & Reuters

Have reached the point of self-parody. They insist that only they are truly accurate, and yet they repeatedly broadside false and fabricated "stories" that can quickly be found out as such by anyone with a modem and a couple of spare minutes in their working day.

At which point the rest of the "news giants" circle the wagons around their "flagship" agencies and insist that anyone who dares to doubt them has a "political agenda".

Of course, the MSM's agenda is never political.

And as Ensign Chekov once said, "And I am the Tsar of all the Russians!"

cheers

eon

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Packrat Location: KY

Reply # 3
Date: Nov 29, 2006 - 9:13 AM EST

Question

If we can get pictures of dead Palestinian babies in Cana, hostages being executed by Al-queda in Iraq, dead Americans in Africa; why don't we have at least one photo of this occurance.

Inquiring minds want to know.

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Keepontryon Location: MI

Reply # 4
Date: Nov 29, 2006 - 9:42 AM EST

Can the media heads win?

Here we are looking at an Iranian president who cooly reports that he can't lose. American medida has conditioned more than half the nation to believe that all is lost in Iraq. We will surely not give Iraq back to Saddam as he will be executed by his enemies in Iraq and Iran.

After that the Iranians will move in to save us by bringing order to Iraq or at least part of it. Maybe the Kurds will manage to unite with their fellows in Turkey, but so what? No Democrat majority needs to fear U.S. concern for Turks upset with a Kurdistan nation that splits Turkey. Right?

Then we watch the Iranian leader perfect his A bombs as he finds he has enough oil for power for quite a long time, but a need to get A power to subdue S.A. and its little pool of oil, so he can not bother to blackmail, just subdue us. Surely we can't drive our SUVs very long without oil from the middle east can we? Of course, Iran will sell its oil to the Chinese and Indians who are needing so much more of it. We won't be concerned about that will we?

Then he lets some bad nuke stuff get smuggled into the U.S. and cause an event to make 9-11 seem like nothing by comparison. The evil suicide delivery person will be dead, so we need not retaliate, right? Besides, we won't find a trace of who did it or have any idea of what to do to avoid the next one, right?

Surely, we will lose this war without the help of the media, right?

Of course, our secular humanists will accept the Muslim law to survive, right? Yes, and pigs will fly too!

No hurry to stop this. Right?

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Keepontryon Location: MI

Reply # 5
Date: Nov 29, 2006 - 9:46 AM EST

Can the media heads win?

Here we are looking at an Iranian president who cooly reports that he can't lose. American media has conditioned more than half the nation to believe that all is lost in Iraq. We will surely not give Iraq back to Saddam as he will be executed by his enemies in Iraq and Iran.

After that the Iranians will move in to save us by bringing order to Iraq or at least part of it. Maybe the Kurds will manage to unite with their fellows in Turkey, but so what? No Democrat majority needs to fear U.S. concern for Turks upset with a Kurdistan nation that splits Turkey. Right?

The Sunni world may not like watching the Shias destroy all of them in the civil war that the media wants to showcase, right? That will sell a lot of papers and soap.

Then we watch the Iranian leader perfect his A bombs as he finds he has enough oil for power for quite a long time, but a need to get A power to subdue S.A. and its little pool of oil, so he can not bother to blackmail, just subdue us. Surely we can't drive our SUVs very long without oil from the middle east can we? Of course, Iran will sell its oil to the Chinese and Indians who are needing so much more of it. We won't be concerned about that will we? After all, Iranian kids need to eat food bought with petro dollars.

Then he lets some bad nuke stuff get smuggled into the U.S. and cause an event to make 9-11 seem like nothing by comparison. The evil suicide delivery person will be dead, so we need not retaliate, right? Besides, we won't find a trace of who did it or have any idea of what to do to avoid the next one, right?

Surely, we will lose this war without the help of the media, right?

Of course, our secular humanists will accept the Muslim law to survive, right? Yes, and pigs will fly too!

No hurry to stop this. Right?

Flag as Offensive

MyOpine Location: CA

Reply # 6
Date: Nov 29, 2006 - 11:44 PM EST

Good story that needs telling

Even if you could get a retraction from MSM they would manage to find some way to hide it.

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Pirate Location: MA

Reply # 7
Date: Nov 30, 2006 - 12:10 AM EST

AP's Response:

11/28/06
AP Statement about unfounded attacks on its story about an immolation attack

From John Daniszewski, International Editor, The Associated Press

The Associated Press rejects unfounded attacks on its story about six Sunni worshippers burned to death outside their mosque on Friday, November 24.

AP reporters who have been working in Iraq throughout the conflict learned of the mosque incident through witnesses and later corroborated it with police.

The AP received an email communication late Monday signed by a U.S. military public affairs officer, Navy Lt. Michael B. Dean, alleging that the police captain cited in our story "is not a Baghdad police office or MOI (Ministry of Interior) employee" and raising questions about whether or not he actually exists.

In fact, that captain has long been know to the AP reporters and has had a record of reliability and truthfulness. 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.

After the AP story was questioned by the U.S. military, Hussein was contacted again and confirmed that the incident took place. The AP also located additional witnesses outside the mosque in the al-Hurriyah district.

According to the witnesses interviewed by the AP, there was no U.S. military present at the time of the incident Friday, and the subsequent U.S. military statement about it cited only reports the U.S. military had received later from the Iraqi army.

http://www.ap.org/response/response_112806a.html

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jerabaub Location: FL

Reply # 8
Date: Nov 30, 2006 - 7:02 AM EST

The Nitty-Gritty, Part 26.

MSM correspondents usually are holed up in the Green Zone. They rely upon Iraqi "stringers" to go into wartorn parts of Baghdad, as well as neighboring provinces, and report back to them on how things are going. But, let's be realistic. Most correspondents would be sitting ducks outside the fortified Green Zone. They'd be killed or taken as hostages. Few of them even speak Arabic. They are insulated, and are suspectible to whatever spin the stringer wishes to convey. But I take exception to those who claim the media has largely formed American public growing disgust with our involvement in Iraq. Bad things are happening there. It is anarchy in Baghdad. For over 3 years our military has been training Iraqis to take over security in their nation, and they still cannot or will not do it. Iraqi police forces, and even some military units, have been infiltrated by people whose allegiance is to warlords, militias...and not the government.
One can have a healthy skepticism of the fairness in media reporting and still understand that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. "Civil War" is defined by Illustrated Oxford Dictionary as "a war between citizens of the same country". That is occurring in Iraq. It cannot be denied. It is equally true outside forces such as Al Qaeda has resorted to terrorism against the Shia, and has been successful in provoking a Shia-based terrorist retaliation against the Sunni.
I will quote from William Buckley yesterday: "In that part of the world attachments form under very ancient dispensations, so that Shias and Sunnis, then Kurds and Hezbollah, crowd about, expressing their resentments and tossing internecine tribal, nationalist and credal elements into the stew". That, friends, perfectly captures what is happening in Iraq, and indeed, in the mideast as a whole.

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Kat-Daddy Location: LA

Reply # 9
Date: Nov 30, 2006 - 8:18 AM EST

Aiding and Abetting?

I agree with "Myopine"; if (don't look for it) the MSM did happen to make a retraction, it would be buried somewhere between the water-polo and beach volleyball scores....
The conservative media need to bring this to TV so that those who do not read columnists can be well informed of the travesty of truth that the MSM is making with the Jamil Hussein thing. This is an issue that must be brought to the front burner now, so that Americans can see the crap they've been fed all along where the Iraq situation is concerned. Are you listening Fox News? Rush? Hannity? Malkin? Coulter? ANYONE?

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jdkchem Location: PA

Reply # 10
Date: Nov 30, 2006 - 9:48 AM EST

Faster then you can say

Stephen Glass the ap "contacts" "jamil" and the libtard ap apologist/enablers demand an apology. And they refuse to let any details or facts get in the way. If the facts don't support your ideology make something up, business as usual for the libtards.

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Betty Location: NY

Reply # 11
Date: Nov 30, 2006 - 12:42 PM EST

Jamil

A much more pressing question is: Who is Austin Bay?

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maritza Location: CA

Reply # 12
Date: Nov 30, 2006 - 12:56 PM EST

NOBODY IS PAYING ATTENTION

Dear Sirs,
I am so deep concern that everybody are focusing in the issues only in Irak and we are not focusing in the issues inside USA and in America.
We or USA and Media and Columnists did not were aware in the ISSUES INSIDE MEXICO, NICARAGUA, VENEZUELA, LATINAMERICA and now communists are getting the whole world.
We are facing the enemy inside USA too. I was born in Venezuela and I am dissapointed in the issues of LOS ANGELES and other locations and the Cubans terrorists doing jobs inside USA. Did you know the 2 weeks ago hackerslab were working in San Diego to undermine the Mexican government? Did you know that Venezuelans are getting threats in their jobs and all kind of threats from activists inside USA supporters of Chavez.
I got also email threats. The election is going to be in Venezuela this Sunday 3 and the whole WORLD is facing the big threat from the Communists. They name themselves socialists. the http://www.marxist.com web page you can find information.
This Sunday is the elections in Venezuela and I did not see no support to prevent the big fraud is coming and the threat the Venezuelans Americans are facing also inside the United States. Do you know the name of the leader a Venezuelan American in make the threats to others with her groups of terrorists are in LA, and she has power inside USA? The Venezuelan Community were alerting from after Sept. 11 that Chavez of Venezuela was part of the plot in connection with the network of terrorist. Nobody is paying attention. I am really dissapointed to find that America and the world is facing this and NOBODY IS PAYING ATTENTION.

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