Confederate Yankee v Associated Press

Just about every blog that has ever looked at misreporting by the MSM has run into trouble with Associated Press (AP). It is, of course, a kind of a co-operative of journalists and exists for the journalists who no longer feel the need apparently to try to substantiate their stories or report in a more or less balanced fashion.

Au contraire, the aim is to turn Iraq into another Vietnam as far as the journos are concerned - those glory, glory days when they brought down presidents and undermined western morale. Of course, they also condemned millions of people to a hell on earth but that is something the media has never bothered to come to terms with.

We have already mentioned Confederated Yankee's recent scoop as far as a certain unsubstantiated AP massacre report is concerned. The saga continues with an exchange of letters and a clear refusal on AP's part to report Michael Yon's well documented stories even when their own people happen to be nearby.

Could there be a reason for this pickiness? Just asking.

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I know this is a far-off country but still ....

The result of this weekend's Estonian election is of no real interest with the new government probably consisting of the incumbent coalition. In fact, AP's reports all seem to be full of padding, though whether informing the world endlessly that

the country grapples with some of the EU's worst health statistics, including high rates of alcoholism, HIV infections and traffic-related deaths

without any proof makes Estonians particularly happy is open to question.

A more interesting aspect of the AP report is their phraseology:

Estonia's two major coalition parties were poised to stay in power Sunday after grabbing about half of the votes in the country's first parliamentary election since joining the European Union, according to partial official results.

Grabbing? Is there any evidence of fraud or use of force? And if there is no evidence, on what basis does AP describe the results as votes being grabbed?

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Could the Iraqi MOI be winding up AP?

According to Confederate Yankee that famous police officer at Khadra has acquired yet another name: he appears to be Jamil Gulaim "XX", his real last names being thus protected, though none of them are Hussein.

We still have no explanation as to whom AP has actually asked for all those unsupported stories and what actually happened in Hurriyah. AP's strategy seems to be to keep very quiet and hope that all those nasty bloggers will go away after fresh prey.

I think not.

Keeping up with the AP story

Although the British media has comprehensively ignored the story of Captain Jamil Hussein (if he exists) and the odd tale of 61 or 62 reports from him about horrific attacks on Sunnis by Shias, none of which had been corroborated by a single other news outlet. Not one.

As we reported a little while ago, it appeared that Captain Jamil Hussein had been found with no explanation of where he had been, who had seen him and what was the truth of the rather flexible Hurriyah incident.

Now, it seems that the story has taken yet another turn. Nobody had said that Captain Jamil Hussein of Khadra police station had been located - probably rather a long way away, as his supposed reports come from many different places.

What has been confirmed is that a Captain Jamil Ghdaab Ghulaim has been found in Khadra. So, is he the famous source? He says no. Has AP been using a pseudonymous source without telling anyone? We must not doubt the word of that "venerable" organization.

Confederate Yankee has the story with all the links. And, of course, Curt at Flopping Aces.

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Predictable or what?

Just as a number of bloggers and journalists, including Michelle Malkin, were heading over to Iraq to find the mysterious police captain Jamil Hussein, lo and behold, his existence has been confirmed. Kind of. For the moment there seems to be no explanation as to where he has been all this time and why he has been whisked into arrest immediately on being found.

Nor is there any explanation as to what really happened in Hurriyah (there is still no real evidence for the story Jamil Hussein is supposed to have produced) or why none of the stories AP sourced from him have been confirmed by any other news outlet. Not just the odd one but none. Confederate Yankee, as ever, follows the story and the astonishing appearance of comments from left-wing bloggers who have, until now ignored it all.

And, of course, now there will be no need for Michelle and others to go to Iraq to see what AP is really up to. Isn't that convenient?

A bunch of festering amateurs

We went to great lengths to dissect the Qana pictures, alleging that the news agencies – and Associated Press in particular – were working to their own agendas.

But, in the above picture issued by AP, datelined 28 December, we have evidence of a darker, more disturbing secret, borne out by the caption which reads: "Old Bradley fighting vehicles line the grounds around the BAE systems plant in Lemont Furnace, Pa."

This and the picture here refer to a Sharewatch story, the lead paragraph opening:

The Bradley Fighting Vehicles, stripped of their treads, scarred and simply worn down from being driven long miles in harsh desert conditions, are the latest of hundreds refurbished or upgraded annually by their maker, BAE Systems -- one of many defense contractors whose business has grown throughout five years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For reference, this is a picture of a Bradley, and here are details of something else.

What the pictures demonstrate is that, in AP, we have a bunch of festering amateurs. And, if they can't get simple, glaringly obvious details right, how on earth can we trust them with more politically sensitive information where the interpretation of a picture might rest entirely on the text of a caption?

The answer is given partly by Michelle Malkin, who is also having some fun with some photographs, partly by Little Green Footballs, and by others. And, if you need it spelling out, the answer is dead simple - you cannot trust anything the agencies produce unless the veracity is self evident from what is offered, or the detail can be independently verified.

SILENT EDIT ALERT

The pictures are still up but there have been "silent edits". One caption now reads: "Piles of treads (tracks, shurely? - ed) are stacked on pallets around old military equipment that line the grounds around the BAE Systems plant in Lemont Furnace, Pa." The other is below:

Click on each picture, to show the "before" and "after".

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