Baghdad's Jayson Blair?

Remember the Wash Post's assertion earlier this week that the Baghdad morgue had tallied 1,300 killed since the Shiite shrine was blown up? Well no other papers could find anybody at the morgue who claimed that number. Then the Post followed up with an odd piece that quoted a Interior Ministry official Gen. Ali Shamarri  backing them up.

The catch: When other reporters tried to find  "General Ali Shamarri," Interior Ministry officials  say there's no such guy on their payroll.  I've spoken to one reporter who said he's looked and looked, and no dice--and Knight Ridder seems to have come to the same conclusion:

In Baghdad, our correspondents attempted to interview Gen. Shamarri to confirm the Post's account of violence more widespread than previously believed. They were told that no person by the name of Ali Shamarri worked in the statistics department, nor anywhere else in the ministry. We've communicated this finding to the Post. We are also working on a story that we expect to move tomorrow.

It's of course possible that the Interior Ministry people are just trying to hide this "whistleblower." But if I were Ms. Howell, I'd get cracking.