Several things about the details that are leaking out surrounding the, apparently false, story about Abu Ayuuab al-Masri's capture are disturbing. The coverage given by Pajamas Media is telling.
Pajamas Media has been forced to soberly retract their gleeful crowing about the "first success" of the surge.
Media reports that the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured today are false, our sources in the intelligence community tell us. Don’t believe al Arabiya, Associated Press or Reuters, at least not yet.
Notice that it is the media that cannot be trusted here. As though they had fabricated the story on their own - those nefarious underminers.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki is under intense domestic and international pressure to deliver good news. The Shiite Interior Minister was feeling the heat and prematurely released information about a raid several miles north of Baghdad.
When Pajamas Media admits that Iraqi government officials are being pressured to cook the news, you know we have a problem. Is the "surge" meant to pacify Iraq or just cow Iraqi ministers into reporting lies?
U.S. intelligence officials demanded DNA tests to confirm the identity of the prisoner. U.S. has DNA reference samples of virtually all al Qaeda leaders, including al-Masri. Blood samples from family members are one source of such reference DNA samples.
A crestfallen intelligence official told Pajamas Media: The prisoner’s DNA did not match that of al Masri’s.
When did all of this happen? Don't DNA tests take more than a few hours? Why do I always get the feeling that nothing that is being reported out of Iraq is even remotely true?
Yet we are supposed to trust their intelligence analysis.