Friday, December 15, 2006

The Hunt for the Elusive Jamil Hussein

Like the elusive jackalope or the Loch Ness Monster, Jamil Hussein continues to be quarry that has been seldom seen but oft quoted by AP. Michelle Malkin is hashing out details of a trip to Iraq with Eason Jordan and his latest outfit, Iraqslogger.com, which may address some of the issues raised by Curt at Flopping Aces who first noted serious discrepancies on the Jamil Hussein sourced stories.

Meanwhile, the facts continue to come in and they do not support AP. Robert Bateman provides some insight into the matter, and offers a geography lesson for readers who are unfamiliar with Baghdad.
The AP, I should note, in their counterattack against those who questioned their story and sources, said, "It's awfully easy to take pot shots from the safety of a computer keyboard thousands of miles from the chaos of Baghdad." The AP executive who said that did so from New York City, but ya know what? Unlike that AP editor, I know something about Baghdad. Having lived in Iraq for a year (returning this past February, if you all recall), and knowing Baghdad well, one additional thing that has blown my mind about this, and the silence from the majority of the media (except E&P, which is covering the story well), is a simple element of geography.

The AP cites their source as being an officer in the Yarmouk district of Baghdad. Fine. Most people in the U.S. and the world don't know Baghdad's geography. But the question that hit me is "why is somebody in Yarmouk the main quoted source (originally) for a story about events in Hurriyah?"

Yarmouk is a neighborhood on the north side of what many people know as "Route Irish." Between Yarmouk and Hurriyah neighborhood are the districts of Al Andalous and Al Mansoor (parallel w/ each other), above that is Al Mutanabbi, and above that is Al Urubah ... before you get to Hurriyah. It's more than 3 miles away. Now for country folk like me, 3 miles isn't but spitting distance. But in a city of 7 million, like NYC or Baghdad, 3 miles is a huge distance.

In other words, in going to their "normal" source for this story, the AP went to the equivalent of a Brooklyn local police precinct for a story that occurred in northern Yonkers! Hello? What would a cop in Brooklyn know about a crime in Yonkers? That's what doesn't make sense to me. (And why didn't the AP reveal, until challenged, that this source was not from the district where the events allegedly occurred, or even from a neighboring district, but is from a moderately distant part of this 7-million-person city?)
I think the analogy as a general principle is sound but his references to New York City are inaccurate. New York City's population is more than 8 million and three miles from Brooklyn would put you somewhere in Queens or Manhattan, not Yonkers (which is not even a part of New York City). However, Bateman is correct to question the supposition that cops in one precinct would know intimate details of incidents that occurred in other precincts.

Besides, reporters in NYC wouldn't ask a beat cop in Brooklyn South details about an incident that occurred in Manhattan North, so why should we expect that to be any different in Baghdad?

Even Mickey Kaus is getting into the act.

Curt at Flopping Aces (and cross posted at Say Anything) is not impressed with someone who works for Jordan and has been posting away at a multitude of blogs trying to protect his boss' assets.

Don Surber, meanwhile, busts out a MASH reference that is quite appropriate (and I wish I came up with it first!).

Others blogging: Blogs of War, Dan Riehl (who questions other aspects of the AP reporting, namely the hospitals who supposedly received the victims, based on their geographical relationship to where the incidents allegedly occurred; though it is possible that they went to the hospital that was better suited to deal with those injured - trauma center perhaps?), JammieWearingFool, Pajamas Media, Jules Critteden proffers a humorous take on the search, and Bill Hobbs.

Then, there's those who would wish ill on Malkin and Curt for going to Iraq or are just plan asinine.

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