The New York Times, fresh off of publishing the latest classified document, is questioning the speed at which a CENTCOM news release got onto conservative blog sites.
The issue is the so-called policeman named Capt. Jamil Hussein that has figured prominently in Associated Press reports recently. Problem is, he doesn’t seem to be a policeman, nor does he seem to have any official capacity. Conservative blogs, especially Flopping Aces, began questioning Hussein’s authenticity after they noticed he had been used in several stories, most recently as the source for AP’s report that six people had been burned alive with kerosene.
This prompted AP to send several reporters out to try to verify its story, but all they could come up with were unnamed sources (not the first time that’s happened), which prompted even more criticism. Now, CENTCOM says via its news release that Hussein isn’t a policeman at all. Conservative bloggers, having been on this story for days while The New York Times ignored it, quickly received copies of the news release from CENTCOM because they requested them.
Of course, the NYT would know nothing about going through proper channels. I guess they were waiting for another leak.
UPDATE: For continual updates on the AP sketchy source affair, go to Michelle Malkin. She’s got it covered.
