The right-wing blogosphere -- thinking they have found another incident of phony reporting meant to erode support for the war -- has been loudly denouncing the Associated Press' recent report that six Sunnis were doused with kerosene and set on fire within sight of Iraqi police who failed to intervene. Michelle Malkin even weighed in with some stunningly absurd analysis.
And the U.S. military blasted the Associated Press source for the story, Iraqi Police Capt. Jamil Hussein, as an unauthorized spokesman who they were unable to confirm even worked for the police. The military demanded a retraction.
The Associated Press has responded with an even more detailed account of the incident -- citing eyewitnesses -- and telling the military to take their request for a retraction and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.
The Associated Press is standing by its report that six Sunni men were burned to death in Baghdad Friday by Shiites, even though U.S. military officials have accused the wire service of relying on a source who "is not who he claimed he was," an Iraqi police captain.
Military officials also say they cannot confirm that the incident took place and have asked AP to retract or correct the story, which was repeated by media around the world and cited as a grim example of Shiites taking revenge for a deadly bombing that killed more than 200 people a day before.
"The attempt to question the existence of the known police officer who spoke to the AP is frankly ludicrous and hints at a certain level of desperation to dispute or suppress the facts of the incident in question," AP International Editor John Daniszewski said in a statement e-mailed to On Deadline this afternoon.
He added that "we have conducted a thorough review of the sourcing and reporting involved and plan to move a more detailed report about the entire incident soon, with greater detail provided by multiple eye witnesses."
"The police captain cited in our story has long been known to the AP reporters," Daniszewski wrote.
"The AP stands by its story."
Apparently, the elite anti-liberal-media-bias shock troops in the right wing blogosphere are discovering that clever Lexis/Nexis searching and faith in the military's public information officers does not a "Dan Rather moment" make.
So now, the crawfishing begins:
Rightwing bloggers had ridiculed the AP story, with some suggesting the AP reporter was in league with the insurgents. On Wednesday, the Powerline blog remained skeptical, asserting that "the AP evidently thinks it knows what way the wind is blowing, with the Democrats now in power in Congress and talk of defeat and withdrawal in the air.
"I have infinitely more faith in the U.S. military than in the Associated Press, but that doesn't mean the military is always right or the AP always wrong. It seems that the AP believes it is in a strong position. I'm tempted to say that one institution or the other must emerge from this affair with its credibility damaged."
Perhaps Powerline read The Associated Press' new, more detailed report:
Seeking further information about Friday's attack, an AP reporter contacted Hussein for a third time about the incident to confirm there was no error. The captain has been a regular source of police information for two years and had been visited by the AP reporter in his office at the police station on several occasions. The captain, who gave his full name as Jamil Gholaiem Hussein, said six people were indeed set on fire.
On Tuesday, two AP reporters also went back to the Hurriyah neighborhood around the Mustafa mosque and found three witnesses who independently gave accounts of the attack. Others in the neighborhood said they were afraid to talk about what happened.
Those who would talk said the assault began about 2:15 p.m., and they believed the attackers were from the Mahdi Army militia loyal to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He and the Shiite militia are deeply rooted in and control the Sadr City enclave in northeastern Baghdad where suspected Sunni insurgents attacked with a series of car bombs and mortar shells, killing at least 215 people a day before.
The witnesses refused to allow the use of their names because they feared retribution either from the original attackers or the police, whose ranks are infiltrated by Mahdi Army members or its associated death squads.
Two of the witnesses — a 45-year-old bookshop owner and a 48-year-old neighborhood grocery owner — gave nearly identical accounts of what happened. A third, a physician, said he saw the attack on the mosque from his home, saw it burning and heard people in the streets screaming that people had been set on fire. All three men are Sunni Muslims.
UPDATE: Bhfrik wrote about this last night in a diary that got no love. Go give him some mojo, too.