N.Y. Times' Iraq Detainee Story Challenged

[Jolie Rouge]

N.Y. Times' Iraq Detainee Story Challenged

NEW YORK - The New York Times is investigating questions raised about the identity of a man who said in a Page 1 profile that he is the Abu Ghraib prisoner whose hooded image became an icon of abuse by American captors.

The online magazine http://www.Salon.com challenged the man's identity, based on an examination of 280 Abu Ghraib pictures it has been studying for weeks and on an interview with an official of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command. The official says the man the Times profiled Saturday, Ali Shalal Qaissi, is not the detainee in the photograph.

In an e-mail to the Times, Chris Grey, chief spokesman for the Army investigations unit, wrote: "We have had several detainees claim they were the person depicted in the photograph in question. Our investigation indicates that the person you have is not the detainee who was depicted in the photograph released in connection with the Abu Ghraib investigation."

"We take questions about our reporting very seriously, and we will carefully investigate Salon's findings," Susan Chira, the Times' foreign editor, said in Tuesday's editions. "We attempted to verify the claims of Mr. Qaissi thoroughly. We spoke with representatives of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, who had interviewed Mr. Qaissi and believed him to be the man in the photographs."

Qaissi also was interviewed and described as the hooded man in an article in Vanity Fair and in a broadcast on PBS, the Times noted.

The Times said it was shown evidence by Amnesty International documenting Qaissi's incarceration at Abu Ghraib during the time the photographs were taken. The newspaper also said it spoke with the man's lawyers, and contacted the military, which said the Geneva Conventions prevented it from commenting about the identity of anyone in a photograph.

The newspaper said it did not contact the Criminal Investigation Command in reporting the article.

Asked about the challenge to his identity, Qaissi insisted to the Times that he was the man in the photograph.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060314/ap_on_re_us/abu_ghraib_hooded_prisoner_1;_ylt=AnpNJXCsv0x8ynVi uw3x1QlX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[Jolie Rouge]

Identifying a torture icon

The New York Times tried to tell the story of the man behind the infamous Abu Ghraib photo. But the paper may have had the wrong prisoner.

By Michael Scherer

www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/14/torture_photo/

[Jolie Rouge]

, Times Admits Incorrectly ID'ing Hooded Man



The New York Times acknowledged in Saturday's editions that it incorrectly identified an Iraqi man in a front-page story as the hooded figure shown in a photograph from Abu Ghraib prison that became an icon of abuse by American captors.

An editor's note accompanying a front-page story on Ali Shalal Qaissi said the paper ''did not adequately research Mr. Qaissi's insistence that he was the man in the photograph.''

After the original story appeared March 11, the online magazine Salon.com challenged the man's identity, based on an examination of 280 Abu Ghraib pictures it had been studying for weeks and an interview with an official from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command. The Times said it was investigating the matter.

The Times said Qaissi and his lawyers maintain that he was photographed in a similar position and shocked with wires, but that Qaissi acknowledged he is not the man in the specific photograph.


Here's the "Editor's Note:"


A front-page article last Saturday profiled Ali Shalal Qaissi, identifying him as the hooded man forced to stand on a box, attached to wires, in a photograph from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal of 2003 and 2004. He was shown holding such a photograph. As an article on Page A1 today makes clear, Mr. Qaissi was not that man.

The Times did not adequately research Mr. Qaissi's insistence that he was the man in the photograph. Mr. Qaissi's account had already been broadcast and printed by other outlets, including PBS and Vanity Fair, without challenge. Lawyers for former prisoners at Abu Ghraib vouched for him. Human rights workers seemed to support his account. The Pentagon, asked for verification, declined to confirm or deny it.

Despite the previous reports, The Times should have been more persistent in seeking comment from the military. A more thorough examination of previous articles in The Times and other newspapers would have shown that in 2004 military investigators named another man as the one on the box, raising suspicions about Mr. Qaissi's claim.

The Times also overstated the conviction with which representatives of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International expressed their view of whether Mr. Qaissi was the man in the photograph. While they said he could well be that man, they did not say they believed he was.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/pageoneplus/corrections.html

[Jolie Rouge]

How about a new motto for the Times:

This document is of limited evidentiary value.

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004792.htm