Who Was More Eager For Bad News?

The dominant story out of Iraq since Saturday has been the overwhelming and unexpected — to liberals, unexpected — success of the election. So, today, the Associated Press and Reuters (at the least) ran with a phony story about an American soldier being taken prisoner and held hostage by the "Mujahedeen Brigades" (or "Mujahideen Squadrons").

So, my quite sincere question is this: who was more eager to bring bad news to America to wipe the smiles off our faces? The Mujahedeen Brigades? Or the Associated Press?

More questions: Can it get any worse? Can they stoop any lower?

Or should I bother asking these kinds of questions? Get a load of this. Here is how a Reuters article was posted at Free Republic, 12:27 PM EST (quoted ellipsis in original):

DUBAI (Reuters) - A little-known Iraqi insurgent group said on Tuesday it was holding a U.S. soldier and threatened to kill him within 72 hours if Iraqi prisoners were not released, according to an Internet statement.

"Our mujahideen ... have managed to capture the American soldier John Adam after killing a number of his colleagues," said the Mujahideen Squadrons in the undated statement.

It carried a picture appearing to show a U.S. soldier sitting in front of a black banner with a rifle pointed at his head. The authenticity of the claim, which did not say where the man was seized, could not be verified.

"We will cut his throat in 72 hours if our male and female prisoners in the occupation jails are not released," it said.

A group using the same name, Mujahideen Squadrons, last month claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a Brazilian engineer in Iraq (news - web sites).

Insurgents in Iraq, including al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, have been waging attacks on U.S.-led forces since they invaded the country in 2003.

And here is how that story (same URL cited at Free Republic) looks now (quoted ellipsis in original):

DUBAI (Reuters) - A picture of an "abducted" U.S. soldier in Iraq (news - web sites) appeared on a Web site on Tuesday, but suspicion grew it was a hoax after a U.S. toy maker said it appeared to show a model soldier made by the company.

"Our mujahideen ... have managed to capture the American soldier John Adam after killing a number of his colleagues," said the Mujahideen Squadrons in the undated statement on a Web site monitored in Dubai. It threatened to kill him.

But Liam Cusack, marketing coordinator for California-based Dragon Models USA, said the picture appeared to show a special forces operative figure the company had made for collectors.

Defense officials at the Pentagon (news - web sites) in Washington said the U.S. military had no indication any of its soldiers were missing in Iraq.

Cusack said the striking similarity between his company's action figure, which was marketed under the name "Cody," and the published picture, were pointed out to him early on Tuesday by an Arizona retailer.

"I worked on the development of that figure so I had seen the look of that head before," Cusack said. "We don't want to be the ones to say that it is (a hoax) for sure. Because if there is a search and rescue, that needs to be done."

Cusack, speaking from his office at City of Industry, California, noted the rifle being pointed at the figure in the photograph posted on the Web site also appeared to be the plastic M4 rifle included with the figure.

The message and photograph were posted on a site run by a group calling itself al-Muntada al-Ansar, which has in recent months restricted access to the site to registered users in an effort to avoid unknown groups posting messages.

The site has been the main channel of communication in recent months for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Insurgents in Iraq, including al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, have been waging attacks on U.S.-led forces since they invaded the country in 2003. (Additional reporting by Kevin Krolicki in Los Angeles)

Look. I'm not ignorant. I know the wires update stories continually. They always have. But... like... um... shouldn't there be some acknowledgement in the Reuters story that they had been hoodwinked? Instead, it pretends they're just reporting it as the story of a hoax. It's not as if they can run that kind of jive past the public anymore............

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 02/01/05 09:29:06 PM
Categorized as Media.