Curt at Flopping Aces has a post that he says is The Latest on Jamil Hussein. Curt says he has been in touch with Bill Costlow, the CPATT (Civilian Police Assistance Training Team) representative. According to Curt:

But guess what Bill just confirmed? Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf never acknowledged that there was a Capt. Jamil Hussein assigned to the Khadra station, he confirmed to the AP that there was a Capt. Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim assigned there. Apparently he is the source for the AP even though he still, to this day (according to Bill Costlow), denies being the source.

From this, Curt concludes:

So what do we have so far?

That the AP has lied again in their response. The AP specifically stated that Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf acknowledged Jamil Hussein exists when he did no such thing. He acknowledged a completely different name the AP gave him but not a Jamil Hussein.

Then, the AP’s source denies he is the source.

Color me dubious. Curt seems to be leaping straight to the conclusion that, if Costlow is right, the AP has misreported what it was told by Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the MOI spokesman. But there’s another possibility, that Curt would do well to keep in mind: that Khalaf said one thing to the AP, and another to Costlow.

I’m reading between the lines here, but it sounds like Costlow is getting his information from Khalaf. If that’s true, it would be a good idea to keep in mind that we don’t know whether to trust Khalaf. Sure, the AP could have gravely misrepresented, in an easily refutable manner, what Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told them. But it seems to me to be more likely that Khalaf is just another Iraqi telling everybody what they want to hear.

P.S. For what it’s worth, I e-mailed Curt to ask whether Costlow said Hussein had been arrested. He replied: “No, he was questioned and denied everything.” At this point, I think it’s valid to question whether Hussein will ever be arrested. I wouldn’t trust anything I heard coming out of the MOI on this.

P.P.S. I find it ironic that lefties — who pointed and cackled like a pack of monkeys at conservatives who believed the MOI about Hussein before — are perfectly willing to believe the MOI statements they like, such as the ones quoted by the AP. This is especially ironic given all the evidence indicating that the MOI’s information is unreliable. It goes to show you that we all have a natural inclination to believe things we read, even when that information is reported in or by sources we know are unreliable. I sometimes even believe things I read in the L.A. Times!

It’s something we have to fight constantly.

But for the lefties, lack of skepticism is a relative sin; it depends on whose political ox is being gored.

Hypocrites. But we knew that.

I meant to post this at Thanksgiving — but then, I have said that we should treat every day like Thanksgiving. So it’s appropriate now.

It’s a card the Compton Branch Office of the District Attorney’s Office received during the Thanksgiving holidays last year, from another satisfied customer — an inmate in state prison. The card was on our bulletin board, next to a printout of the case details from our internal system, showing the defendant’s conviction for attempted murder. The pre-printed portion of the card read:

I miss you

It seems like forever since we’ve been apart

I’m lucky to have such sweet memories to hold onto until we’re together again

and the personalized message from the inmate read as follows:

District Attorney’s Office,

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Psalm 67]

Thank you for the 23-year plea bargain and the $200 restitution!

From,

[name and prisoner information redacted by Patterico]

Unfutunately, our store in the prison was out in Thanksgiving cards, but this one is still good.

Yes, it is.

Media Matters’s Eric Boehlert has this column about conservative bloggers’ alleged refusal to admit error regarding Jamil Hussein.

In the column, Boehlert refuses to admit his own previous error regarding Jamil Hussein.

Who says there’s no irony on the Internet, Joe Rago?

It’s just not all intentional.

Boehlert’s error, you may recall from an earlier post of mine, was made in a recent column, in which he reported that Hussein “was under arrest” Thursday. As evidence, that column cited a report that said only that Hussein “faces” arrest — and which also makes clear that any prosecution is unlikely.

My guess: Boehlert wanted Hussein to have actually been arrested, so that he could pin that on bloggers. So he wished and hoped, and voila! in his mind, it was so. And so that’s what he wrote.

Is he unaware of the error? Nah. Not only did I do a post about it, I left a comment on the column where it occurred.

The site’s three-item corrections page has no correction as of the time this was posted.

Also, I have searched in vain for a correction in either the earlier column or the newer column. No luck. Instead, I see only pontifications like this:

But don’t look for detailed corrections, let alone heartfelt apologies. Being a warblogger means not having to say you’re sorry.

Insert your own punch line.