Jawa Report Exposes Bad Guy

Some readers may recall the name Bilal Hussein, a stringer photojournalist for the Associated Press, who was able to get up close and personal with al Qaeda in Iraq fighters even though those same fighters routinely murdered reporters and photographers. The AP ultimately won a Pulitzer Prize with the war reports featuring Hussein's photos.

In the latest development, Hussein now faces criminal charges for being too "up close and personal" with a terrorist organization. And, The Jawa Report played a part. According to Rusty Shackleford:

Apparently Bilal Hussein had been picked up in a raid in which he wasn't the target. That target was a known al Qaeda operative, Hamid Hamad Motib, and bomb making materials were found in the house.

Hussein was arrested and taken to Abu Ghraib, but no one knew who he was. Just another low-level insurgent, I'm guessing.

He had been sitting in Abu Ghraib for a month, and nobody realized that he was the AP photog who had snapped dozens of staged photos with al Qaeda fighters. The reader was in Abu Ghraib as an investigator working on an unrelated case when he saw Bilal Hussein and recognized him from the extensive coverage we had on The Jawa Report.

He reported it up the chain of command and within days Bilal Hussein was transferred to a different facility, NCIS got involved, and eventually a criminal investigation opened on him.

Congratulations to The Jawa Report! By extension, the entire anti-jihadist blogosphere should share the warmth of success.

Acting predictably, the AP is hunkering down and defending its implicated propagandist photographer. An AP attorney said yesterday that the U.S. military plans a "sham on due process."

As an aside, I can't help but recall Jordan Eason's admission that, as CNN Baghdad bureau chief, he couldn't tell the truth because then Saddam Hussein wouldn't have allowed any stories at all to be reported.

In summary, by doing the job the regular American mainstream media don't do, a blog has helped expose a terrorist sympathizer working for the AP. As a result, don't expect the MSM to provide accurate coverage of the story, at least not in the short run.

Lastly, kudos to Rusty Shackleford and The Jawa Report. Go visit for the entire story.