Jamil Hussein Saga Continues

Pseudonyms? The AP says Jamil Hussein exists:

...[T]hat 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.

Yet, investigations by bloggers, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials, MNF-I, and Civilian Police Advisory Training Team (CPATT) officials, have found that no one by that name exists or works at the police stations involved. The AP continues to stick by the story, despite the questions surrounding the existence of a source who has provided key details on more than 60 stories. Instead, they found someone who matches the description in all ways except the last name:

There is only one police officer whose first name is "Jamil" currently working at the Khadra station, according to my CPATT sources.

His name is Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim (alternate spelling per CPATT is "Ghulaim.") Previously, Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim worked at a precinct in Yarmouk, according to the CPATT sources. Curt at Flopping Aces has received the same info.

So, the AP continues to stand by its original reporting, despite the fact that no one, let alone the AP, has actually presented Jamil Hussein to the world for questioning. We simply are left with the AP asserting as unmitigated fact that this guy exists and we must take their word for it. Here's the kicker, as Michelle notes:

According to the CPATT officers, Captain Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim "denies ever speaking to the AP or any other media." I retracted information to the contrary two days ago based on a single CPATT source who said he had erroneously stated that Gulaim had admitted being the source.

To repeat: Both CPATT sources in the U.S. and Iraq have confirmed that Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim denies speaking to the AP.

That leaves a couple of unanswered questions:

1. Is Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim the real name of AP's oft-cited source?

2. If not, where is "Captain Jamil Hussein" currently working?If he is a Baghdad police officer, as AP asserts, why hasn't anyone--not CPATT, not MOI, not Marc Danzinger's sources--been able to locate him?

It is quite curious that AP continues to stonewall. It's also quite interesting that bloggers have advanced the story about the AP reporting far more than the AP or other media outlets.

Allah at Hot Air continues to provide updates and analysis. Meanwhile, SeeDubya gets Dowdified by Eric Boehlert, who takes SeeDubya's comments out of context and ignores key details all to further a narrative that claims that warbloggers are missing the big picture about the situation in Iraq.

I'd go one step further than SeeDubya. It is not the warbloggers who have accused US forces of purposefully targeting journalists, it is Eason Jordan and others who made such unsubstantiated comments. Warbloggers have focused on the way that the insurgents and terrorists have exploited journalists and reporters and cameramen in Iraq for their own purposes, either as infiltrated stringers or killing them when they get in the way. It is the insurgents who target the journalists for attacks, hoping to sway reporting by creating a bunker mentality among reporters that gets filtered into yet more negative reporting on Iraq. This, on top of the carnage that is reported accurately, provides people with the impression that Iraq is a failure even though there are quite a few tangible and real facts that show this not to be the case.

UPDATE:
Instapundit points to The Anchoress also has a run in with Eric Boehlert and she's not holding back either. Her comments were Dowdified and she takes issue with being called a warblogger as well. She also questions why it has been so difficult for anyone to track down the families of those who were allegedly killed in the attack as sourced to Hussein. Surely there are six families who are in mourning for their losses in such a heinous and violent manner and would want to tell the world about it. Pursuing Holiness piles on.

Allah isn't happy with the way Boehlert is labeling bloggers.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin continues to get no answers to the basic questions posed above.

Others blogging: JammieWearingFool and the Unapologetic Mexican.