12/17/2006

13 Responses to “Nothing to See Here, Folks”

1. you and marc have given us a big buildup over this, and if there isn’t a commensurate payoff, time magazine might take away your man of the year honors.

   assistant devil's advocate (739843) — 12/18/2006 @ 1:32 am

   
   

2. I know the story isn’t out yet, but allow me to engage in some wild speculation. Marc’s teaser post says nothing about Jamil Hussein being a police officer, but merely that he is in the police station. That, to me, implies that he is either incarcerated or works in the station in another capacity, with the latter being much more likely than the former.

   My guess is he works there in a civilian capacity. Possibly as a dispatcher-type, but more likely as a janitor or some other lowly position where he would never have access to actual information but rather half overhears conversations between real officers. That would go a long way in explaining why the AP has not yet produced him. Considering the man is more than willing to allow his name to be used on a fairly frequent basis, it never made sense to hide him for safety reasons.

   The bottom line is if he’s anything other than a police captain the AP has a lot of explaining to do regarding its assertion that their reporter has met with him multiple times in his office.

   Shivv (472f5f) — 12/18/2006 @ 5:49 am

   
   

3. Considering the other witnesses in this case, and the general level of violence, this whole escapade is silly. Even if some new detail comes out, as far as the situation on the ground is concerned you’re grasping at straws. The war itself doesn’t interest you. The opinionds of Iraqi’s don’t interest you. The opinions of the majority of our sildiers don’t interest you: They want to come home. You want them to stay.

   Nothing to see here folks

   BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a crowd of mostly poor Shiites in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding more than 200 after luring construction workers onto a pickup by offering them jobs as they were eating breakfast.
   The blast, condemned by both Shiite and Sunni lawmakers, came on a day that saw the U.S. military report the deaths of five more troops. At least 59 other Iraqis were also killed or found dead, including an AP Television News cameraman who was shot while covering clashes in the northern city of Mosul.

   ON DEADLINE: Eyewitness accounts

   The Baghdad suicide attack shattered storefront windows, dug craters in the road and set fire to several cars. People rushed to the devastated area to see if friends or relatives were killed or wounded. Mangled bodies were piled up at the side of the road and partially covered with paper. Two men sat on the sidewalk, crying and covering their faces with their hands.

   The bombing took place about 7 a.m. in Tayaran Square, where men gather daily to solicit jobs as construction workers, cleaners and painters. They buy breakfast at stands selling tea and egg sandwiches while waiting for potential employers to drive up, making them easy targets.

   The practice has become increasingly common amid high unemployment and soaring prices, forcing men to hire themselves out daily to feed their families. The Iraq Study Group report released this month by a bipartisan commission in Washington said that unemployment ranges from 20% to 60% of Iraq’s population.

   It was the second major attack in less than a month in which unemployed Shiites were lured to their deaths by a suicide bomber promising to hire them for the day. On Nov. 19, 22 people were killed and 44 were wounded when a minivan driven by a man promising work exploded in the mainly Shiite southern city of Hillah.

   AF (8f7ccc) — 12/18/2006 @ 7:27 am

   
   

4. AF– bravely defending news organizations’ right not to tell the truth…so long as they confirm his preconceived notions. What a man! What a man!

   corvan (5b15ef) — 12/18/2006 @ 8:11 am

   
   

5. As corvan notes, the story here is the AP’s accuracy and veracity, or lack thereof. And if they were this lose with the facts on this story, how accurate have they been on others, any where else?

   By the way, AF, do you have anything to substantiate your claim that the majority of our troops just want to come home?

   And appealing to the ISG as an authority doesn’t work, their report has already been shredded. “20% to 60%” is a heck of a spread, <sarcasm> gives me a lot of confidence in their data </sarcasm>

   larry (feb78b) — 12/18/2006 @ 9:03 am

   
   

6. geez AF

   fake but accurate wasn’t legitimate for 60 Minutes II, why is it legit for AP?

   Spare me such truthiness.

   Darleen (543cb7) — 12/18/2006 @ 9:29 am

   
   

7. bravely defending others’ deaths to keep your fantasies alive.

   test (8f7ccc) — 12/18/2006 @ 10:52 am

   
   

8. Armed Liberal is backtracking: “I think we discovered something, but it turns out probably not to have been useful…I’d say that what I did – with a lot of help from a number of folks – probably muddied the waters more than cleared them.”

   http://windsofchange.net/

   Fair enough. Major props for acknowledging we’ll likely never get to the bottom of this.

   Establishing Captain Jam(a)il Hussein’s bona fides won’t change a single mind or alter established narratives, anyway. These are fixed notions of an arrogant, America-hating media, intentionally undermining Bush policy. CENTCOM took a stab at impeaching AP’s account, while their own published list of blacklisted, unreliable sources included the Ministry of Information spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf. (He has since been restored to “reliable” status, it appears.) It’s pretty unlikely the military will weigh in again on this issue. That leaves you with Eason Jordan antics, an impossible-to-verify job status and AP’s “twice-interviewed eyewitnesses.” A judgment unclouded by suspicion and outrage on either side is not in the cards.

   The venerable Times [of London] brags it is “the only British newspaper to maintain a full-time Baghdad bureau.” It ran the same Hurriya account sourcing no one:

   http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2470830,00.html

   steve (576c8c) — 12/18/2006 @ 11:35 am

   
   

9. “i think we discovered something, but it turns out probably not to have been useful.”
   yes, i’ve been there…
   the two major levels of reality are perceptional reality, the gold standard, that which you perceive with your own senses, and representational reality, what you read in newspapers and blogs and people tell you about. in contexts such as this one, representational reality should be viewed with high skepticism. i don’t trust any of the commentary coming out of iraq and i am resigned to the prospect that i will never know the truth about jamil/jamail hussein and the accounts attributed to him.

   so, what can we conclude with reasonable assurance?

   approximately 2950 american soldiers have died over there, with nothing tangible i can point to by way of national benefit for their sacrifice. the two factions hate each other as much or more than they hate us and we’re in the middle, akin to reffing a college football game where players and fans are allowed to shoot at the refs. our commander in chief doesn’t seem to have a coherent, definable, intelligent, doable mission. our options appear to be 1) get serious, or 2) get out. yes, we could take option 1 and kill 100,000 iraqis in a week, but i am at a loss to articulate how this would benefit america in the long run. that leaves option 2.

   assistant devil's advocate (136b85) — 12/18/2006 @ 11:56 am

   
   

10. Oh, he may ultimately be “no one”, Steve, but that Times account did name a source:

    Iraqi soldiers failed to confront the Mahdi Army during their spree, according to police captain Jamil Hussein, who added that at least 25 Sunnis were killed. The fighting started in Hurriya when Mahdi Army fighters, with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades, attacked a mosque where Sunni gunmen were hiding, a Shia woman said. People in local shops ran for home as soon as they heard the bullets fly.

    That’s an interesting account, though. I thought only the AP could see him.

    See-Dubya (f7706f) — 12/18/2006 @ 12:36 pm

    
    

11. If anyone is curious, which I doubt, there are always things to Read and Learn.

    AF (8f7ccc) — 12/18/2006 @ 12:40 pm

    
    

12. Weird Morning on the Jamil Hussein Snipe Hunt…

    Retractions and non-committal rumblings around the blogosphere about the mysterious “Captain Jamil Hussein”. I’ll have more soon–nothing dispositive, though very informative–but I’m going to actually add to the fog and confusion a bit first. Freq…

    JunkYardBlog (621918) — 12/18/2006 @ 1:34 pm

    
    

13. The Times account *did* name a source. I goofed.

    steve (576c8c) — 12/18/2006 @ 2:42 pm