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Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Hooded Detainee

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 10:25:32 AM EST
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Here's the backdrop to the story about the Abu Ghriab prisoner turned prisoner's rights activist from Saturday's New York Times.

The New York Times reports today that Salon is challenging its identification of Ali Shalal Qaissi as the hooded detainee standing on a box hooked up to electricodes. From the Times:

On Monday, Chris Grey, chief spokesman for the [Army's criminal] investigations unit, asked about the challenge, confirmed to The Times in an e-mail message: "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.

"As always, we will take this information into consideration in the course of our investigative duties to determine if there is any credibility to the person's allegations."

The man identified by The Times, Ali Shalal Qaissi, often called Haj Ali, was also interviewed and described as the hooded man forced to stand on a box attached to electric wires in an article in Vanity Fair and a broadcast on PBS.

Quaissi still tells the Times he's the man in the photo. Salon says otherwise.

Army documents obtained by Salon contradict the Times' account. An official report by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID) concluded that the photo the Times said showed Qaissi actually showed another detainee, named Saad, whose full name is being withheld by Salon to protect his identity. According to the official report, this second detainee was nicknamed "Gilligan" by military police at Abu Ghraib.

I won't be surprised if it turns out there was more than one prisoner subjected to the prison guards' abhorrent tactic.

< Autopsy: Juvenile Boot Camp Detainee Died From Beating | Moussaoui Judge Bars FAA Witnesses, Allows Death Case to Proceed >

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    Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Hooded Detainee | 7 comments (7 topical)
    Re: Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Ho (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 02:07:54 PM EST
    It is just a matter of minutes before some powerline putz e-mails in claiming it can't be him. The robe's the wrong thread count.

    Re: Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Ho (none / 0) (#2)
    by jimcee on Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 04:06:34 PM EST
    I honestly don't care if this was the guy or not except that the NYTimes found it easy to run the original story on page one and the Salon challenge in the back of the section. Either way the NYT is trying to pull a 'Dan Rather ANG' stunt and challenge Salon to prove a negative. Unfortunatly the NYTimes has had this problem with ideological dogma posing as journalism before (Walter Durante's hagiographies towards Stalin's slaughters in the '30s) and improved until the mid 90s when it started back down the path of foggy logic and opinion masking itself objective reporting.

    Re: Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Ho (none / 0) (#3)
    by rMatey on Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 06:27:48 PM EST
    Let's see. More than one guy claims it's him. that's easy, since the Bushistas did this to everyone. Besides, how could you tell if it was you they were taking pictures of, since you obviously had a hood on. Duh!

    Re: Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Ho (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 10:30:34 PM EST
    Unfortunatly the NYTimes has had this problem with ideological dogma posing as journalism before (Walter Durante's hagiographies towards Stalin's slaughters in the '30s) and improved until the mid 90s when it started back down the path of foggy logic and opinion masking itself objective reporting.
    Not to mention Whitewater.

    Re: Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Ho (none / 0) (#5)
    by jimcee on Wed Mar 15, 2006 at 07:38:54 PM EST
    rMatey, What part of the cheap side of your argumentation requires your opponent to prove the negative? Prove a positive and allow anyone a response but that would require you to want anyone to proof your thesis. This used to be a very good site for debate but has turned into a prayer corner for yah-hoo Leftist soapbox adherents or derilect chorus trolls. More is the pity.

    Re: Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Ho (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 15, 2006 at 07:49:21 PM EST
    Jimcee, I'm fascinated by this new style of yours. It's really quite a departure. What inspired this new foray into gonzo conservatism as it were?

    Re: Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Ho (none / 0) (#7)
    by jimcee on Wed Mar 15, 2006 at 08:49:36 PM EST
    Charlie1, You haven't dwelled here long enough to know whether my ideas have changed and quite frankly your opinions are more invective than substance. I'm not a conservative but perhaps you can't identify a liberatarian because of your own immature stereotypes of those you don't understand. Either way I just came back from Amsterdam NE and Hamburg DE and most of my friends there were no more 'conservative' than I and none were NAZIs. By the Bye, if you go to Amsterdam beware of the too strong herb there.

    Salon Challenges NY Times Identification of Hooded Detainee | 7 comments (7 topical)