Michelle and others are still hammering on the AP to give up "Jamil Hussein", the ubiquitous Iraqi Police Captain used as a source for the burned alive story last month, among others. The AP blasted back with another "we're the AP and you're not" retort today, yet still didn't provide proof of the Captain's existence. The original stone was rolled away by Curt, who continues to be the go-to source among bloggers. I don't have anything to add other than an opinion, but is it possible Captain Hussein is a nom de guerre to protect the 'real' guy? Perhaps he's a Sunni working in the Iraqi Police who fears reprisal if using his own name. Despite the AP's pomposity it's an angle for consideration, since if true they couldn't very well give him up without jeopardizing his life.
While on this fair and balanced roll, it's certainly prudent not to take everything coming from the Iraq MOI at face value as the AP suggests. That said, it's pretty obvious which sources they inherently distrust, and it's not their own. Without providing pedigrees they could, for all we know, be former employees of Saddam's disinformation ministry. Yet if they give them up it might cause harm, which takes us back around to the point from whence we came--"believe us because we're the AP".
But, while they busily cockadoodledoodoo about their 160 year war reporting experience (wasn't the Pony Express around back then?) perhaps they could use some of it to find out the status of "Juba the Baghdad Sniper", reportedly captured last week. So far only the keyboard cowboys have run the story, but let's see, Juba was a creation of the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni group with ties to Saddamists. Perhaps Jamil has some contacts the AP could exploit.
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