1 Excellent, Bob. Linked from Eason Jordan calls out al-AP on Jamilgate!

2 Heh, now AP is saying poor Jamil Hussein may have been a victim of "ethnic cleansing". I've asked a few questions regarding this claim that Hot Air didn't.

3 I also wish someone would dig into the Reuters daily stories out of Baghdad that are vaguely attributed to "an interior ministry source", are generally a single sentance and give little detail other than the number of dead. They don't tell where they were found, their ethnicity, nothing. Examples (and I am not paraphrasing here, these are the ENTIRE report taken from the Reuters site ... one sentance.): December 28: BAGHDAD - Police found 41 bodies in different parts of Baghdad over the past 24 hours, an Interior Ministry source said. December 27:BAGHDAD - A total of 40 bodies were found, shot dead and most showing signs of torture, in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry source said. December 26:BAGHDAD - A total of 40 bodies were found, shot dead and most of them showing signs of torture, on Monday in different districts of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. December 25:BAGHDAD - A total of 29 bodies were found shot dead, with most showing signs of torture, in different districts of Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

4 No more profanity, folks. I had deleting comments, epsecially from the regulars.

5 Well done. I've covered the AP's reaction over at Stubborn Facts with: Let Them Eat Cake!

6 I looked for "Mohammed Musab Talal al-Amari" in Lexis-Nexis under wire services, news transcripts and world news for any mention in the past ten years. The only news organization that has ever mentioned him is the AP and only in relation to this one story.

7 Same thing for "Hussein Ahmed al-Mousawi".

8 Same thing for "Falcon Brigade" AND "Interior Ministry" AND "sniper". So, for all the assassination stories, there is no corroborating source anywhere in the world. AP is entirely on their own.

9 Same thing for "Amir Kamil". So far AP is batting 0.000 for corroboration of their stories.

10 Has anyone investigated the possible relationship between Thomas Wagner, AP writer, and Linda Wagner, AP Media Affairs Director? It would be quite interesting if they are somehow related.

11 I think it's obvious what has happened. Jamil Hussein has been kidnapped by Waldo. Find Waldo, you'll find Jamil Hussein.

12 Nice bit of work. The first time I've seen the names of the AP writers who talked?? to Hussein. Has anyone contacted them directly to see what they know about him? If you're looking for someone, the first thing you do is talk to the people who've been in contact with him. Skip the AP front office, talk to the people who supposedly had contact with him.

13 June 18, 2006 HEADLINE: Gunmen seize 10 workers from bakery in Baghdad, police say Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint on a highway in the insurgent-infested neighborhood of Dora, wounding two policemen before fleeing, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said. Irish site BreakingNews.IE provides this AP account. Again, no other news agency seems to have a corroborating version of this account. Try here: http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/mideastwire/index.php?id=156 Gunmen travelling in five civilian cars kidnapped today 10 bakery workers in the city of Al-Kazimiyah, north of Baghdad. An Interior Ministry source said that the incident took place after 1000 at the Wisam Bakery in Al-Nuwwab Street.

14 The first attack was a car bomb that struck an Interior Ministry patrol in western Baghdad, killing four commandos and wounding six, Capt. Jamil Hussein said. June 19, 2006 - MidEastWire.com Daily Iraq Monitor June 19, 2006 Al Sharqiyah TV: Four people were killed and seven wounded in a car bomb blast targeting an Iraqi army patrol in Al-Waziriyah neighbourhood. http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/mideastwire/index.php?id=157

15 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. A security source has reported that the police captain in charge of security in the Al-Yarmuk Hospital in Baghdad was assassinated by gunmen in the Al-Bayya area in western Baghdad. http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/mideastwire/index.php?id=158

16 Kenosha, in the first instance you cite, he talks about the kidnapping reported on many sites, but has nothing about the AP-provided story where Hussein says there was an attack on the polcie checkpoint. Critical reading skills are warranted. Various readers have emailed me overnight after they have run LexisNexis searches, and they all independetly confirm that only AP had these stories. Dhar Jamail seems to be reposting AP content, perhaps cribbed from al Jazeeza, and usually not attributed.

17 I can't get your track backerer to work so here is a substitute: the Captain and Jamil

18 You could try calling the AP's international desk and asking for whatever documentation you're looking for: 212-621-1663.

19 Dhar Jamail seems to be reposting AP content, perhaps cribbed from al Jazeeza, and usually not attributed. As many of his stories contain details not included in the AP stories, he isn't cribbing their content. And he does attribute his stories - to MideastWire. Critical reading skills, you know.

20 Gunmen also ambushed a bus in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah in western Baghdad, killing six passengers, including a woman, and the driver, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said. Ayad recalled an attack last month when gunmen ambushed a bus in Amiriyah and killed six passengers and the driver, then set the vehicle ablaze. Like many in his neighborhood, he believed that the Mahdi Army orchestrated the attack -- and that the Iraqi soldiers there to protect the neighborhood looked the other way. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701755_2.html

21 Kenosha Kid, about those critical reading skills..... Your MidEastWire source, "Gunmen travelling in five civilian cars kidnapped today 10 bakery workers in the city of Al-Kazimiyah, north of Baghdad. An Interior Ministry source said that the incident took place after 1000 at the Wisam Bakery in Al-Nuwwab Street." The AP source, "Gunmen seized 10 workers from a bakery today in a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood in Baghdad, while a car bomb in the northern city of Mosul killed one woman and wounded 19 other people, police said. The gunmen arrived in two cars, broke into the bakery in the northern suburb of Kazimiyah and abducted the 10 workers, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said, a day after a mortar shell hit a well-known market in the area, killing four people." Was it two cars or five? Is "Lt. Mohammed Khayoun" an "Interior Ministry official"? While the stories *may* be independently sourced, they may not be. They also have a serious conflict in the detail of how many cars were involved. Your MidEastWire source, "Al-Imam al-Sadiq University, formerly known as Al-Bakr University, in eastern Baghdad came under mortar shelling. Police sources said that three mortar shells had fallen on the premises of the university, which is located in the Al-Qahirah neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad, injuring three civilians." The AP source, "A mortar shell also hit the al-Sadiq University for Islamic Studies on Palestine Street, one of the capitalÂ’s main thoroughfares, wounding five students and a teacher, police Lt. Ahmed Qasim said." Again there's a factual disagreement; on the number of injured as well as how many mortar shells hit the university. However, I think the two independently confirm the basic story lines. Nice catch. Don't know why Lexis-Nexis doesn't know about MidEastWire services. I don't think the second or third examples corroborate anything, however. The MidEastWire stories are too vague to confirm that the source is not the AP in each case. In the latter case, the "security source" could well be our good Capt. Jamil Hussein. In the former case they disagree on the number of wounded and the nature of the patrol - Iraqi Army or Interior Ministry - but the MidEastWire story has no source at all.

22 That was followed by a car bomb that targeted a police patrol in the Mansur area of Baghdad, wounding three policemen and four civilians, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein. Verified: http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=71191392&cdi=0 Baghdad, IRAQ: Wreckage of a car that exploded in Baghdad's upscale Mansur neighborhood, lay strewn across a street, wounding seven 24 April 2006.

23 You've missed part of the story. By my count the following are the number of bylines by name for the AP stories (subject to errors and omissions): Thomas Wagner 11 No Byline 8 Sinan Salaheddin 5 Kim Gamel 4 Qassim Abdul-Aahra 2 Qais Al-Bashir 2 Sameer N. Yacoub 2 Lee Keath 1 Robert H. Reid 1 Tarek El-Tablawy 1 Patrick Quinn 1 Ryan Lenz 1 Bassem Mroue 1 How many stringers vs, regular AP reporters? Will any of them admit to actually speaking with Capt. Jamil Hussein? How come so many AP reporters can find this guy but no one else? Where are they based? U.S.? Green Zone? Imbedded? How many other Iraq war reporting bylines do they have? What is their individual credibility and/or integrity? Who has interviewed the above? Any willing to go in the record? If they are shown to misrepresent their source will it hurt their careers? Can the blogs put pressure on them?