No, it’s not him

In headier and news-starved times, everyone convinced themselves that the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq had been captured, but US officials in Iraq deny that it’s true (Fox News/Associated Press link);

The U.S. military denied Friday that the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq — Abu Ayyub al-Masri — had been captured, saying instead that a man with a similar name was arrested in the northern city of Mosul.

Iraqi authorities on Thursday said Iraqi police commandos captured the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq in a raid in the northern city of Mosul.

“Neither coalition forces nor Iraqi security forces detained or killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri. This guy had a similar name,” said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq.

The story goes on to recount that numerous phone calls to Iraqi officials confirmed that it was indeed al-Masri, however that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.

“We called the commander of Ninevah operations 10 times and every time he insisted it was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir because when they caught him, they asked him whether his name was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and he said yes,” al-Askari told the Associated Press by phone.

He added that the commander repeatedly “insisted that it was him, how can we deny him then.”

There had been false alarms in the past about al-Masri. At least twice — in 2006 and May 2007 — reports circulated that he was dead, but they were later proved wrong.

How many times has the Associated Press used this same excuse for broadcasting news that isn’t true, with even less reliable sources than the Iraq military and police?

Category: Media, Terror War